Would you pay higher taxes for NHS drugs for all? Poll discussion

wensmcg

teddyco wrote: »

It's all poison! The only good one..........aspirin.

if aspirin were a new drug I doubt it would get a license for anything other than prevention of MI (heart attacks) it is actually potentially very dangerous unless used correctly.

all drugs, including herbal medicines, are poisonous if used incorrectly. And all treatments are a balance fo the benefits which may be achieved against the risks of their use.

If you had cancer and chemo was your chance to stay alive, you might think differently.

Errata

wensmcg wrote: »

There is actually evidence that antidepressants reduce suicide if used correctly, excpet in children. Although they are often over-prescribed. I do find your terming people nutters offensive. Half of all women and a third of all men will be affected by depression at some point in their life and one in six is affected at any one time. Practically everyone will known someone or will have been depressed.

Please be a bit more sensitive with your comments.

(interest: specialist mental health pharmacist)

Completely agree, unfortunately the hard of thinking will always be with us.

(interest: user of mental health services)

[Deleted User]

Depression can mainly be cured by a healthy diet, exercise and removing teh environmental factors that cause teh depression, ie sack off working in the uk and become a caribbean gigalo .

The fact is medical science hasnt got a clue what causes depression and what teh effect of the drugs it prescribes has, chemical imbalance all that stuff is just a load of twaddle. Probably be better perscribing a placebo.

Most research pub'd is from vested interested in pharm co's. More independant work shows up against anti-dep.

I obv know people on anti-dep and its become a never ending drug cycle for them and just drags them further and further down. If you could wind back the clock and take a diff route im certain they wouldnt have ended up like they are.

wensmcg

sallyewade wrote: »

Please all remember this when voting ,the scottish get free prescriptions and less tax,which you and I pay for;

I live in Scotland and I pay for my prescriptions actually, are you thinking fo somewhere else?

wensmcg

anntics wrote: »

If I'm wrong, I'm sure one of the pharmacist members will correct me;), but there are a lot of issues to consider about medications which prevent them from being re-issued. Apart from the obvious one of being intact, there is also no way of knowing how they have been stored and what they have been in contact with. An example - I am severely allergic to pet hair and might suffer a reaction if given packets that had been in a home where animals lived.

It is a shame that they cannot be reused in circumstances like yours, but most of the wastage could be avoided by patients not getting drugs they don't need.

a lot has to do with liability. When you recieve a medicine the manufacturers carry the liability for the storage because the wholesaler/supplier/pharmacy all have to adhere to how medicines are stored. If you were to store your tablets on a radiator this could inactivate the ingredients and thus if they were reissued they might not work, or worse they might break down into something dangerous. Who would then carry the liability for that? The manufacturers wouldn't because there could be no control over how the medicine had been stored.

Also the pharmacist has a legeal and ethical responsibility to ensure that the medicines they supply is in appropriate condition and you couldn't guarantee that if it had left the premises.

Many people store medicines in the kitchen or bathroom, and high up. warmth light and humidity are the worst things for medicines as they increase the breakdown of most drugs wihtin the medicine. Meidicnes should be stored somewhere dry, dark and below 25 degrees in most cases and obviously somewhere inaccessible to children ofr safety reasons.

I admit its frustrating to destroy so much - it breaks my heart to see it, but currently there isn't anything legally we can do about the recycling. Its still better to only order medicines you really need.

I hope that clarifies the issue a little
Regards

markcoopz

I refuse to fill in this poll,, We already pay enough to the government,, the poll should have a checkbox for: Use the millions that are paid in but wasted. i.e. politicians fact finding trips abroad (that they always seem to need to take the whole family on), & you could pay of a couple of thousand of the parasites that inhabit the NHS as well

wensmcg

Yant1 wrote: »

Depression can mainly be cured by a healthy diet, exercise and removing teh environmental factors that cause teh depression, ie sack off working in the uk and become a caribbean gigalo .

The fact is medical science hasnt got a clue what causes depression and what teh effect of the drugs it prescribes has, chemical imbalance all that stuff is just a load of twaddle. Probably be better perscribing a placebo.

Most research pub'd is from vested interested in pharm co's. More independant work shows up against anti-dep.

I obv know people on anti-dep and its become a never ending drug cycle for them and just drags them further and further down. If you could wind back the clock and take a diff route im certain they wouldnt have ended up like they are.

Obviously as has been said we are all entitled to an opinion. but an opinion is different to stating "facts" that you obviously don't really know anything about.

Drugs have to be shown to be more effective than placebo in order to be licensed and this includes all the antidepressants. Obviously they dont work for everyone and yes it is true that we dont know exaclty what causes depression. although there is strong evidence of a chemical imbalance in the brain we dont known if this a cause or effect of depression. However we know it exists and if you correct it you are likely to recover from depression.

I have heard it said that if the brain was simple enough for us to really understand it, we would then be too simple to understand it.

There is some stock in encouraging a healthy diet and exercise as this does aid mood, and solving social problems such as debt, housing, social support/ isolation and concommittant drug or alcohol use also aids in easing depression. And talking therapies or CBT are often as helpful as medicaitons in mild to moderate depression - when antidepressants would not normally be recommended. (As per NICE guidance)

HOWEVER this is not enough for people with more severe depression where antidepressants alone or in combination with talking therapies / CBT are more beneficial. If you have a severe depression and even getting out of bed is a struggle then you're not exactly going to have the motivaiton to exercise and often you might not even bother to eat. And there are some contributing factors to depression that you cannot do anything about - bereavement, pregnancy, separation from parents at a young age, history of physical or sexual abuse, loss of a supporting relationship (e.g. divorce) or your genetic or personality based liability to depression, for example.

You are quoting an opinion based on a few cases - not the results of studying the population. This is the difference between use of medicines based on what worked for my next-door neighbour or the last patient seen with that illness and well conducted research resulting in evidence-based guidelines such as NICE (and SIGN in Scotland).

Kindly

melancholly

hmm... really interesting thread!

i have to say that i think GPs salaries should be capped - they got a great deal in their last negotiation and i think earning over £100,000 is a bit excessive. they are dealing with life and death, and making real differences to people's lives and it is a tough, draining job, and in reality they probably should earn ridiculous amounts of money... but while nurses earn so little, it just seems unfair!

i get the contraceptive pill free - and i'd actually be happy to pay a nominal fee to get it (it is, after all, a choice to need contraception!). if everyone getting it just had to pay a few pounds a year, that's the kind of difference that could subsidise some other drugs that people really needed. but that would never go down well!

i guess the NHS was set up to do life saving treatment only and now it does a lot more than just that! they also have one of the most generous pension schemes which helps to make up for the lower pay than the private sector.

did anyone see 'can gerry robinson fix the nhs'? interesting programmes showing how difficult it really is to make a business the size of a juggernaut change direction....

lawen

I work in the NHS as a lab rat but I used to work as a pharmacist's assitant when I was at school. I think I would pay higher taxes to make everything free but at the same time wouldnt this just give the big boys in management more money to spend and get into more debt!

I am going to China in september and I have had to fork out £100.80 out for a rabies jab (well 3 injections) I dont mind at all, yes its a lot but at the same time, its very rare and I would prefer to have a hole in my wallet than to have rabies!

I dont think its fair how different areas get different drugs for free but surely do we trust the people in the management to give them more of our hard earned cash?
L

lawen

wensmcg wrote: »

I live in Scotland and I pay for my prescriptions actually, are you thinking fo somewhere else?

Isnt it in wales where they get free prescriptions?
L