Prescription question

emily_jackson

Just wanted to ask, can you take a prescription to any pharmacist in the UK, or does it have to be one in the same town as your GP? I'm going to stay with my friend tomorrow, and will be collecting my prescription from the surgery before I go, but don't really have time to hand it in

Hermia

Yes, of course. I do this all the time. You might want to ask the pharmacist if they have the items in stock before they start processing the prescription though. I didn't do this once when staying with relatives and was told there was a ten day wait for the meds and they then wouldn't let me take the prescription elsewhere.

Sam_26

You can take your prescription to anywhere in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as long as NHS

alex21

Just out of interest. Prescriptions are free in Northern Ireland but I assume it would be charged for if you were travelling like the op and had it filled in England? Just wondering.

janiebquick

You can, in theory, take it to any chemist. However, if you are a long way from home, I have heard of pharmacists telephoning your GP practice to check that the prescription is legitimate.

System

alex21 wrote: »

Just out of interest. Prescriptions are free in Northern Ireland but I assume it would be charged for if you were travelling like the op and had it filled in England? Just wondering.

They check the address on the prescription.

Living on the Welsh/English border this is quite common. If your address is in England then they charge otherwise it is free.

Gloomendoom

janiebquick wrote: »

You can, in theory, take it to any chemist. However, if you are a long way from home, I have heard of pharmacists telephoning your GP practice to check that the prescription is legitimate.

Yes, I have had this happen to me.

ellay864

Sam_26 wrote: »

You can take your prescription to anywhere in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as long as NHS

Although the chance is slim, it is possible for a drug to be available on prescription in Scotland, and not England, and vice versa. Although the drugs are licenced for the UK as a whole, NICE 'approval' is what allows drugs to be precribed in England, while it's the SMC for Scotland. There's been cases of cancer drugs available in one and not the other, although they are licenced in both

notanewuser

!!!!!! wrote: »

They check the address on the prescription.

Living on the Welsh/English border this is quite common. If your address is in England then they charge otherwise it is free.

Not quite. It's based on the address of the GP surgery issuing the prescription. Hence most people on the border try to get in with a GP on the Welsh side.

AshfordSteve

janiebquick wrote: »

You can, in theory, take it to any chemist. However, if you are a long way from home, I have heard of pharmacists telephoning your GP practice to check that the prescription is legitimate.

Pharmacists have to be confident that the prescription they are dispensing is legitimate. I know all my local doctors' signatures and most of their handwriting, but I can't recognise signatures that I've never seen before. Some doctors haven't put much thought into their signatures and have ones which would be easy to forge.

The likelihood of a pharmacist phoning the GP to confirm a script is legit depends on several factors. I don't really worry about computer generated NHS scripts as they are pretty secure. If a prescription is computer generated but with amendments, or if it is a handwritten NHS script they are treated with more caution. Handwritten private prescriptions are treated with a lot more caution. The medication being prescribed is also important - some drugs are open to being abused or diverted and so we pay more attention to those. The way the patient is acting can also give clues - if they look nervous for example.

I have come across forged prescriptions in the past, so there are occasions when I will make enquiries to confirm a prescription is legit.

System

notanewuser wrote: »

Not quite. It's based on the address of the GP surgery issuing the prescription. Hence most people on the border try to get in with a GP on the Welsh side.

Having checked, it needs to be a GP in Wales AND the pharmacy needs to be in Wales.

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/part-rel/x-border-health/xb-faq/ wrote:

If I have a GP in Wales, can I have free prescriptions?

NHS prescriptions are free of charge if you have:

• a GP who is based in Wales
• a prescription dispensed by a pharmacist who is based in Wales.

If you live in England and have a GP in Wales, you are able to get prescriptions free of charge as long as the prescription is dispensed by a pharmacist in Wales.
If you choose to have your prescription dispensed in England, you will need to qualify for free prescriptions under the English criteria