Prescription items that are cheaper over the counter

I am a pharmacist, so I hope the following is a useful explanation of how this works.

The pharmacist will almost ALWAYS inform you if your prescription item is available to sell for cheaper than the cost of a prescription charge. (I say almost because if they don't it's because they forgot - very rare).

When the pharmacist charges the £8.05 prescription fee, he/she doesn't get to keep it - it's a tax on the patient for the medicine (and as you probably know, bears no resemblance to the cost of the medicine). Every month the money sends the prescription fee money to a government agency called the PPA, and in return the PPA reimburses the pharmacist a piddling 'dispensing fee', generally around £1 per item.

When the pharmacist sells an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine from the shelf, he/she profits from this private sale just like any other shop. The profit might be more or less than a pound, but importantly, the busy pharmacist doesn't have to go through all the kerfuffle of putting the prescription in a queue, creating and printing a label, finding a white paper bag, being shouted at for not dispensing it fast enough....

Also, we'll tell you if something's cheaper because it's the right thing to do, and we like our customers/patients (even the shouty ones).

If you are lucky enough to live Scotland or Wales, or are one of the around 80% of English who get free prescriptions, none of this applies and you get your OTC meds free if they are on a prescription.

Cyclegirl, from what you say doctors can overrule the licence conditions for a drug. Is that correct?