GP halved my prescriptions without warning, now paying double per month

[Redimpulse]

I've recently had my two medications halved by the GP. One prescription has gone from 30 to 15 tablets and the other from 28 to 14 tablets. I wasn't consulted about this and had no warning. It also means I'm basically paying almost £40 for what was almost £20! I'm house bound so not able to work and don't get any benefits so am paying out of my savings. Is this actually legal, it seems they can make up the rules as they go along, has this happened to anyone else? I was livid when I found out.

Just get a prepayment certificate....?

There’ll be a reason OP. You just need to ask. Usually quantities are reduced if someone needs review and haven’t attended for it.

You need to be awarded full Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity, not just LCfW to receive any additional UC, and this is reducing for new claims from 06/04/26. Also, there is an earnings rule for UC (will include partner if joint claim) which means not all UC claimants get free prescriptions. PIP/ADP also do not give entitlement. The prepayment system is a pretty fair one especially compared to lots of other countries IMO.

This sounds more like they want to carry out an imminent review of the medication and have therefore not issued a full months' supply. This happened to my mother when she was taking sleeping tablets and anti depressants.

I’m confused sorry. If they have reduced the dose they have prescribed then you need to discuss it with them. It would be unusual to do this with planning and agreeing this.

You said in your OP that you will be paying more but if the dose is reduced you aren’t paying more, you’re paying the same amount for fewer tablets, surely?

Not sure if it’s been said elsewhere on your thread @Redimpulse ,but GPs are reducing sleeping tablets prescriptions on the whole. There is a much more stringent criteria to meet before they’ll prescribe them, & then it will only be for shorter periods of time. Also with your recent MH disclosures the GP may have felt this was the right time to reduce the amount prescribed, but they should’ve discussed all of this with you beforehand & come up with an alternative treatment plan 💐

There are multiple possibilities for why they might have been reduced.

Are you overdue a review? Have the surgery tried to contact you and you haven't responded? Are these tablets potentially abusable?
You need to speak to the surgery to get more information as assuming you have to muddle through and cutting tablets up may mean you are not even getting a therapeutic dose

Yeah OP, I’m not sure if ANY of us are sure what’s happening, you included. It doesn’t sound like they’ve reduced your dose; it sounds like they’re giving you a two-week supply, and then expecting you to pay to fill it again in two weeks (probably because you mentioned suicidal intentions, sorry - it’s amazing how as soon as you admit you’re at rock bottom, they do something to make it harder). What does your actual prescription say? If you don’t know, maybe call the pharmacy? Also, why were you rationing your medication to begin with? Them decreasing your medication now shouldn’t have meant running out already, or am I missing something?

But yes, the sleeping pills makes sense to me - they won’t even give my husband more than 14 at a time and he sleeps like hell. They obviously don’t want you to, or think you need to, take them every night. The antidepressant is weird, unless it’s a controlled drug like Valium being used as an antidepressant. If it’s just a regular old SSRI, this is especially odd, since everything makes it clear you shouldn’t reduce or stop an SSRI without a doctor’s guidance.

What is LCW

Limited capabilty for work.

I'm a benefits specialist and do need to clarify that not all benefits give automatic entitlement to free prescriptions. There are additional earnings rules applied to UC , often misunderstood, and none of the non means tested benefits such as PIP give entitlement, although may give additional income to help with such costs if awarded. Also to reiterate, LCW alone does not give additional UC, only LCWWRA does, and even this within a UC claim, if there are earnings eg from a partner, at a certain level there is no entitlement to free prescriptions/dental/optical. As suggested, a benefits adviser is the best way forward. There is a lot of misconception regarding free NHS entitlements especially with regard to UC which I have frequently dealt with where clients have signed for free services incorrectly and ended up being fined later.

Just a clarification. LCW: no work expectation, but required to partake in work related activity. No additional payment on UC claim.
LCWWRA: no expectation to work or prepare for work, additional payment on UC claim, reducing after 6th April. Soon these terms will be removed and the term Health Element will be used instead.

Speak to your gp in the first instance, explain the problem and ask them to increase the prescription again.

Also look at pre payment certs.

Also some medication is free if you are on it long term...... please talk to your pharmacist or doctor for advice x

Yes it's a physical condition, but I'm house bound totally. I haven't been out since June 2022.

I told the GP in 2022 and they've only recently reduced the tablets. I've been on sleeping tablets at least 30 years.

I've had them for years without any problems. Have had to get stuff online as doctors are so unreliable.

I can't choose what GP I speak to, the surgery decides and you have to go along with it. The surgery was fine until COVID then everything changed.

In that case, look at the medical exemption certificate for prescriptions.

Before they reduced the tablets I was getting 28 and 30 and paying £19.80, now I'm paying the same but getting 14 and 15 tablets so it feels like I'm paying double the amount.

Yes but you don’t pay per tablet thank god otherwise it would cost some people a fortune. For example my dose of co-codamol alone is 224 tablets a month!

You dont pay based on quantity, it's per item. So if you have x4 28 tablets for a medicine or x4 56 tablets for a medicine = same payment

change to another surgery? I did it a few yews ago and it was straightforward.

Are they trying to get you off the sleeping tablets as in have they reduced the dose or have they just reduced the quantities prescribed and expect you to take the same dose? As a very poor sleeper I sympathise but am amazed they have continued to prescribe them for 30 years, mine won't prescribe at all.

I presume they're trying to get you off the sleeping tablets. Now they know how bloody awful and addictive long term sleeping tablet use is GPs are under a lot of pressure to get patients off them.