private prescriptions...can GP convert it to a nhs based one

janiebquick

I have never had any problems asking my GP for an NHS prescription for a drug prescribed privately. However, when I paid for my prescriptions, I invariably found that the private ones were cheaper than NHS ones!

I think the reasons most GPs are happy to do this because they themselves play the system a bit and chop and change between NHS and private care.

OnAndUp

janiebquick wrote: »

I have never had any problems asking my GP for an NHS prescription for a drug prescribed privately. However, when I paid for my prescriptions, I invariably found that the private ones were cheaper than NHS ones!.

I found the opposite - quite a shock for me at how much they would have cost private!

InsideInsurance

OnAndUp wrote: »

I found the opposite - quite a shock for me at how much they would have cost private!

It can be an eye opener either way.

My medications are silly money, esp when I was a kid I had to have higher dosages and the product was more expensive. It was actually so bad that our local pharmacist asked us to switch places because they couldnt afford to pay for it all and then have to wait for the NHS to refund them.

On the flipside the private consultant gave the Mrs a prescription to start her off with a months supply of her meds and then asked the GP to take over prescribing. A months treatment cost ~£3.50 depending on the exact brand. Her NHS GP prescribed 2 months at a time so was cost £7.85 for the same and so was more expensive

pogofish

Yes - I've had private prescriptions for stuff that turned out to be so cheap the pharmacist couldn't actually work out how to charge it. One time, we eventually agreed that I'd buy the plastic bottle and he wouldn't bother giving me change from a 20p coin!

I've also had a GP uprate a private prescription for dental antibiotics because she thought that my history merited a higher dose than the guidelines for dentists allowed.

pmduk

OnAndUp wrote: »

I found the opposite - quite a shock for me at how much they would have cost private!

I've long felt patients should be told the cost of the medications they're prescribed. The optimist in me feels it might make people more responsible with medications.

DomRavioli

OnAndUp wrote: »

If the NHS didn't have such long waits then desperate people (I'm referring to myself!) wouldn't need to go private!

I have done this a couple of times with no problems whatsoever I just dropped it into my Gp's like I would a normal repeat Presc I just stuck a "post it" on it asking for an NHS Presc and they never queried it at all?

Also Re: Pregabalin I thought it was just a standard drug prescribed by most Gp's now. My Gp certainly does anyway? Is it an expensive drug or some other reason?

Pregabalin is around £90 for a months supply, so its very cheap on the NHS prescription charge, but in a lot of places, it is severely restricted to consultant prescriptions only due to the cost. When it is "let out", as in when the patent is derestricted and anyone can produce it, it will be a lot cheaper; the components aren't expensive and neither is the production of the drug; just another way to extort the NHS.

My GP surgery wouldn't fill a private prescription without grounds to do so; they are of the school of thought that you can afford the consultant privately, so you can pay for the drugs too; its common in larger practices where they cover more populous, so money can be tight.

janiebquick

OnAndUp wrote: »

I found the opposite - quite a shock for me at how much they would have cost private!

Oh yes, some of them are. However, the ones I've had were antimalarials and antibiotics, which cost pennies!

I think a lot of people assume that the drugs they get on an NHS prescription must cost at least the prescription charge (sorry, as I'm over 60, I don't know what that is anymore!). The truth is that most of them cost far far less than that.

OnAndUp

That's interesting about the pregabalin.

I should have added before I am in Wales where we all get free prescriptions on the NHS.

Although this really benefits me personally I really don't think it should be the case for everyone. I have a long term chronic condition which means I need medication and am unable to work. BUT if I was fit and well and earning I would be happy to pay for prescriptions. This also means that wealthy people who can easily afford them get them free.

I do think there are lots of better things that money could be spent on 1 - getting waiting lists down and they should have somehow? just changed the rules of who got free prescriptions. I think it also means that people who have never paid for medication don't value them and are less responsible with them as pmduk said.

barbiedoll

janiebquick wrote: »

Oh yes, some of them are. However, the ones I've had were antimalarials and antibiotics, which cost pennies!

I think a lot of people assume that the drugs they get on an NHS prescription must cost at least the prescription charge (sorry, as I'm over 60, I don't know what that is anymore!). The truth is that most of them cost far far less than that.

Generic and older drugs may be cheaper, e.g. statins, BP meds and painkillers etc, but many drugs are hugely expensive. I agree with the poster who said that patients should be made aware of the cost of their drugs, they may just be surprised!