MSE News: NHS prescription charges in England to rise

Butterfly_Brain

Why put the dental costs up ? I have never seen a poor dentist have you?

beingpositive

Oh Great! Husband has heart problem but still works never claimed for anything but has to pay for prescription for his heart tablets - at moment not enough to warrant yearly prescription fee but if fees going up then we might have to do that

beingpositive

Oh also forgot to say he needs regular dental treatment (although we can't afford it) because of his heart problems

VT82

The Welsh spokesperson's logic is a bit daft if you ask me.

Do they really think there are that many taxpayers, who supposedly can afford prescriptions, who are nevertheless so skint they would forego collecting their prescriptions, despite being so poorly that doing so could result in them needing treatment, who would then go on to get so ill that they cost the NHS the equivalent of the many millions of pounds that it loses by not charging for prescriptions to anyone???

That's the equivalent of them coming out and saying that Welsh people are so tight they put the money in their wallet above their own health, so need the state to nanny them.

Pull the other one.

At the very least, charging a token amount for a prescription discourages wasting drugs, which according to the BBC is already a massive problem for the NHS arising from some of the people who don't pay for them at present.

And just to give my perspective, I have a chronic condition that requires me to get a prescription every 1-2 months. It's annoying paying for it, but i know I pay significantly less for the drugs than the NHS does.

benham3160

VT82 wrote: »

The Welsh spokesperson's logic is a bit
And just to give my perspective, I have a chronic condition that requires me to get a prescription every 1-2 months. It's annoying paying for it, but i know I pay significantly less for the drugs than the NHS does.

Maybe, the majority of prescriptions have a tariff price well below the prescription charge, that said of course there are plenty of drugs that are considerably more than the tariff price.

The millions that could be saved if pharmacies where more controlled as to how they claim money for drugs, people STOPPED ticking every box on their repeat prescription (pointlessly stockpiling), or people went to their GP for every minor ailment and expect the green pad to come out, then of course the wastage of drugs too, I've personally seen nearly £4,000 worth of drugs come back from a single person after they've had a "clearout" of their medicines cabinet.

Sadly when people pass away, or change treatments it's not unusual to receive carrier bags full of unopened boxes of tablets returned. Creams/lotions/ointments also seem to be big offenders, the amount of E45 tubs (cost NHS about £10 each) that are returned to be destroyed unopened is staggering.

Then once I've taken over the system I'd stop the mass "solve-all" strategy of prescribing statins...... But that's whole can of worms lol

Until you've worked in community pharmacy you can not imagine the sheer amount of wastage or abuse of the system - even from those within.

Regards,
Andy

brook2jack

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Why put the dental costs up ? I have never seen a poor dentist have you?

The dentist doesn't get any more money, it just means the pct has to pay less. Patient contributions are knocked off the overall practice contract so the patient pays a larger proprtion of the cost of treatment. In fact dentists who mainly practice nhs dentistry earnings have gone down significantly in England over the last few years. 5.2% alone in the last financial year reported.

pmduk

I have diabetes and as a result used to receive free prescriptions. However once I'd worked hard on my health I stopped taking meds for the diabetes and my free prescriptions immediately stopped, despite many other chronic medical conditions. Hardly an incentive.

poppy10_2

VT82 wrote: »

The Welsh spokesperson's logic is a bit daft if you ask me.

Do they really think there are that many taxpayers, who supposedly can afford prescriptions, who are nevertheless so skint they would forego collecting their prescriptions, despite being so poorly that doing so could result in them needing treatment, who would then go on to get so ill that they cost the NHS the equivalent of the many millions of pounds that it loses by not charging for prescriptions to anyone???
.

There's plenty of people, in Wales and elsewhere, who are on medication that they might not take if they had to pay each a month for it. It's hard enough getting people to keep taking their blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes medications etc when it is free, introducing charges just makes it even more likely that people won't bother, and will end up down the line with more strokes, heart attacks and other expensive acute illnesses.


N.B. can we stop the 'subsiding scotland/wales/NI' theme, it's false and ridiculous. Each devolved nation has its own health budget and decides how to spend it. Scots getting free prescriptions means that there is less money in their health budget to spend on other things. The money to pay for the free prescriptions doesn't get taken out of the English budget.

Middy

beingpositive wrote: »

Oh Great! Husband has heart problem but still works never claimed for anything but has to pay for prescription for his heart tablets - at moment not enough to warrant yearly prescription fee but if fees going up then we might have to do that

If he has to take these tablets for the rest of his life, he should get them free.

I have 3 friends that take medication for thyroid problems and this medication and others they need to take for other things are free.

Consult your GP.

Torry_Quine

poppy10 wrote: »

There's plenty of people, in Wales and elsewhere, who are on medication that they might not take if they had to pay each a month for it. It's hard enough getting people to keep taking their blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes medications etc when it is free, introducing charges just makes it even more likely that people won't bother, and will end up down the line with more strokes, heart attacks and other expensive acute illnesses.


N.B. can we stop the 'subsiding scotland/wales/NI' theme, it's false and ridiculous. Each devolved nation has its own health budget and decides how to spend it. Scots getting free prescriptions means that there is less money in their health budget to spend on other things. The money to pay for the free prescriptions doesn't get taken out of the English budget.

My bold.

Totally agree. Devolution means different priorities are decided. Here in Scotland for instance we don't have choice of hospital or drop in centres.