gripe water prescription?

[lillups]

hi there does anyone know if it s poss to get gripe water on prescription?

I always thought it was quite cheap! I wouldnt have though it would be a prescription item (but may be wrong)

I've never dispensed it, not to say you can't get it but I doubt it.

I don't think it's a prescribable item.

It is quite cheap. Are you trying to get it on prescription because then it would be free? It wouldn't have occured to me to take up the doctors time with an appointment to ask for something thats available over the counter and cheap, but then there was a woman in boots getting nit lotion on prescription the other day much to the amazement of the dispensing chemist!

i doubt it, it isn't even a medicine is it?
just flavoured water basically.

several studies have shown that it (along with infacol and stuff) are basically ineffective anyway

why wouldnt it occur to you flibberty gp's do get paid 100,000 grand a year sure they can spare 2 minutes to write a prescription it is their job after all. why shouldnt you get items on prescription know that i and others pay enough tax towards nhs. thanks to everyone else.

The thing is lillups GPs prescribing budget is separate to their wage (and very few get paid 100 grand a year).

Every time they prescribe items that patients could reasonably be expected to purchase over the counter, then that's less available in their prescribing budget to prescribe really necessary and effective treatments for cancer, heart conditions, hypertension etc.

And gripe water isn't even clinically proven to work so why should they prescribe it?

Do gps really have prescribing budgets? I've never heard of this. How does that work? What if a GP has a few very "expensive" patients. Are the rest out of luck?

They do. The PCT allocates them X amount based on their practice population. If they have some patients on very expensive drugs (eg one injection for prostate cancer is about £380 every 12 weeks) then it is prescribed "off list" and comes direct from the PCT budget not the GP budget. But just about everything else comes from their budget.

I think if they go over budget they get a big telling off and their budget reduced, and have to fund some of it out of practice funds but don't quote me on that.

Dear God the world has gone mad.