Prescription Charges- Anything I can do??

[MobileAddict]

Hi there,

I'm havin a bit of an issue. I'm experiencing a few issues at the moment with regards to my health and my doctors/s have been prescribing different tablets to try and make me feel a bit better.

Anyway, the longshot is is that whilst I am trying out all these tablets, they are costing me a fortune and they aren't working! So, I wondered if there is anything that can be done about that to claim it back or trade them in?!

I know there probably isn't anything that can be done about it, but in the meantime, its costing me a fortune whilst I am effectively being a guinea pig!

Any help gratefully received.....

[Nomad25]

You can buy a pre-payment card at your chemist. Costs vary according to where you are [NI/Wales/England], but think about £40/50 for annual or you can get 6 monthly ones. Once you have this you present it at chemist every time you go to get a prescription made up [regardless of number of items] and don't pay anything else for your prescriptions during that 6 months/year.

[MobileAddict]

Yeah, I know about these pre-pay things, but I didn't realise I was going to get so many different drugs over the past couple of weeks. Can it be back dated?!!!?

[Desperate Housewife]

do you by any chance live near wales? I have a feeling that their charges are different to ours?

[purpleivy]

I think the prepayment card is nearer £100! I went with it when I found out that HRT counts as 2 prescriptions and the one prescribed wasn't necessarily going to be the right one for me, plus I was on something else as well.

[ClaireLR]

You can get a prepayment card for 3 months as well.

My dad has a 3 month one every 6 months, and stocks up when he has the card so that he doesn't need to get anything in the next 6 months, making it even cheaper!

I'm sure he said the card was around £35 for 3 months. As soon as you apply for it in the chemist you can then stop paying for prescriptions as they give you a number so you dont have to wait for the actual card to come through.

HTH

[Skint_Catt]

do you by any chance live near wales? I have a feeling that their charges are different to ours?

Only if your Dr is registered in Wales - otherwise we'd all be over the border getting free prescriptions!

How about having a word with your Dr about the cost of all this - he might be able to suggest something?

[Jem8472]

I read in the local paper last night that if you are on less than £15,500(ish) then you can get free perscriptons. Its something to do with tax credits. NOt sure if I got the wrong end of the stick. But might be worth looking into.

[ivyleaf]

An annual PPC now costs £102.50:eek: :eek: :eek: It still saves me money over the year though.

OP, I don't think a PPC can be backdated but there's an email address on www.ppa.org.uk (http://www.ppa.org.uk), so you could check with them. It does seem unfair to have to pay for medicines that haven't helped you, but as far as I know, you won't be able to get a refund - hope I'm wrong though.

[beemuzed]

I think it can be backdated up to one month - I'm sure my last one was!

[Nomad25]

I had the experience of trying different stuff, before getting to one that worked [and paid the full single price each time!], I tried to GIVE them back to the chemist, who told me they would be binned. It's all to do with toerags contaminating the stuff, so they can't risk it. Terribly waste of money.

[Olliebeak]

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

[squeaky]

Hi all,

I'll move this one across to the Health board for you. You should be able to find quite a few threads there advising on prescription charges.

Good luck :)

prescription charges threads here on Health & Beauty MoneySaving (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.html?do=process&query=prescription%20charges&forumchoice[]=f=81&titleonly=1)

[somewhere sunlight]

If you are in Scotland the pre payment card for 4 months is £17 and an inidvidual prescription in down to £5

[LondonDiva]

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. Nope.

Gps are discouraged from supplying more than 3 months supply of drugs - unless they can justify it. You are not being given the old supply because your GP has chosen this method or has decided to monitor your / patients' compliance with medication / recall system / whatever differently.

The person ultimately deciding what drug you have is the GP.

Ps - there really is not that much money made from charges when you look at the actual cost of drugs.
My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

[moneysaving pharmacist]

PPCs can be back dated, up to a month I think. However, to be able to claim the prescription charges back you have to ask for a NHS reciept (FP57) at the time of dispensing (to prevent fraud). If you use an independent/small chain pharmacy they may bend the rule and do a reciept for you, but it's unlikely.

[moneysaving pharmacist]

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

Its not a revenue raising issue, it's a waste reduction issue, and hopefully improves patient care.

The NHS spends about £11bn per year on drugs, prescription charges generate about £500m per year, off the top of my head. The vast majority of prescriptions are exempt from charges, and drugs often cost more than the prescription charge - today I dispensed 6 weeks worth of Glivec, which costs £1600 per pack of 30.

The amount of drugs that are wasted by patients is extraordinary. The more patients are supplied with at a time, the more wastage there seems to be. Next time you are in a pharmacy, ask them how much medication they get returned to them. I dispose of around 8 large bags (larger than bin bags) of returned meds every 2-3 months. Thats 8 bags after the strips of tablets have been taken out of their cardboard cartons.

Only supplying one months worth of medication at a time could also allow quicker idenitfication of patients who are not ordering their medication regularly.

[Bossyboots]

PPCs can be back dated, up to a month I think. However, to be able to claim the prescription charges back you have to ask for a NHS reciept (FP57) at the time of dispensing (to prevent fraud). If you use an independent/small chain pharmacy they may bend the rule and do a reciept for you, but it's unlikely.


That's right, they can be backdated for one month but you have to have the FP57 to do so. When you receive your backdated pre-payment certificate you then go to a pharmacy and they will refund the charges from the FP57. Not all pharmacies do the refunds.

I use a family pharmacy which although part of a large chain, did write me an FP57 after the event because they still had the prescription on site. It is always worth asking, but I did go back after only a few days.

As for the question of how much money is made from the charges versus the cost of drugs, my BP tablets cost the NHS £1.28 for 28 tablets. One of my other meds though costs £64 for 56 tablets (28 days supply) so it's swings and roundabouts on cost.

[calleyw]

Its not a revenue raising issue, it's a waste reduction issue, and hopefully improves patient care.



I do understand why they do it. But my husband takes 7 different types of meds. Only one is taken weekly. Some are to protect against side effects of other meds. He gets them all bi-monthly.

Some of them he could be on for years not months and has been on some of them since Oct 2006.

Surley it is up to the GP to make the call of prescriptions . In my husbands case the choice is take the meds or die. So he is hardly going to waste them, throw them away or let them go out of date.

Mind you thinking about it my husbands consultant prescriptions are for 3 months.

Yours

Calley