Prescription Penalty Charge Notice when exempt

dpathome

Hi,
Im hoping that some one can help me with this,

Im a diabetic, have been since i was 12 (now 50) and therefore never had to pay for prescriptions.

I have now received a fine, for not having a valid certificate for exemption, but I have never been told about the need to have a certificate and never had one.

The NHS business unit is being uncooperative and not providing me any answers on who should have informed me or who is at fault, just basically saying pay up or else.

As I have always been exempt, and they have introduced the requirement to have a certificate to show this, who should have informed me on this and therefore who is at fault?

I dont believe I am at fault when not being told about the requirement.

Going further, i have asked them to provide me with details of the department responsible for the certificate, asked them to provide me with all the information they hold on me, etc as I want to establish what department is at fault.
I thought under The Data Protection Act you the right to ask for a copy of the information an organization holds about you and they had to provide it.
What actions can you take if they just ignore this?

Any usefull help please.

BorisThomson

Be very careful not to dig an almighty hole for yourself here. It has been a requirement to apply for medical exemption for many years now, so if you start telling them you never have you could well end up with a raft of penalties.

Responsibility for having the correct documentation/ exemption lies with yourself, nobody else.

The prescription tick box states "has a valid medical exemption certificate". Did you not read what you were signing?

You have the right to submit a subject access request to the NHSBSA to see what information they hold on you. I'm not sure how you think this will help your appeal. If you have not applied for the exemption then the SAR is not going to prove otherwise.

Have you now applied for medical exemption? If you do this within sixty days of the prescription date, then the penalty will be cancelled, but you'll still need to pay for the prescription.

dpathome

Hi
Thanks for your reply,
I understand its my responsibility, but how can some one comply with the requirement if they dont tell you about it ?

As soon as I was aware I needed one I applied and have it now.
I could easily pay the fee, its about £8 ish, but thats not rearly the issue.

Its how can you be held at fault when they didn't inform you abut the need to have a certificate

BorisThomson

dpathome wrote: »

Hi
Thanks for your reply,
I understand its my responsibility, but how can some one comply with the requirement if they dont tell you about it ?

As soon as I was aware I needed one I applied and have it now.
I could easily pay the fee, its about £8 ish, but thats not rearly the issue.

Its how can you be held at fault when they didn't inform you abut the need to have a certificate

Read again what it says on the prescription. They inform you each time you sign one.

antrobus

Legally people with diabetes need to have a certificate to claim free prescriptions. People with diabetes have always needed to have a medical exemption certificate to claim free prescriptions, but this is now being enforced through a central system the Government introduced in September 2014. If you claim a free prescription without a medical exemption certificate, you may be issued with a penalty charge notice and have to pay the cost of the prescription.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/life-with-diabetes/free-prescriptions

BooJewels

I've been diabetic for a long time and exempt from prescriptions for most of that time. I'm struggling to understand how you can have gone along for over 30 years without it coming up before now. There are several stages in the process where someone should have noticed/pointed out/asked for your exemption certificate.

As already mentioned, the tick box on the back of the prescription says something like "holds a current medical exemption certificate" and the dispensing chemist should ask to see it before dispensing the meds.

I recently renewed mine as they do expire periodically (5 years) and my regular chemist knew this as they held the certificate number and expiry date on my account and asked me for the new details when I got a prescription after the old expiry date. If I went to a different pharmacy for a prescription (which I did recently), I wouldn't expect them to dispense medication without asking to see the certificate, if I ticked the appropriate box on the back. They record the certificate number.

You get a certificate by filling in a form that the doctors provide and they then sign and stamp and send off for you. There's not much required on the form and it all only takes a week or so.

From the web page "NHS in England: help with health costs; Prescriptions"

People with certain medical conditions can get free NHS prescriptions if:

they have one of the conditions listed below, and
they hold a valid medical exemption certificate
[...]
diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone
[...]
How to apply for a medical exemption certificate
Ask your doctor for an FP92A form to apply for a medical exemption certificate. Your GP, hospital or service doctor will sign the form to confirm that your statement is correct.