Penalty Charge Notice: NHS Prescriptions - wrongly given, what do I do???

pmduk

Perhaps MSE should be reminding people who pay by cash to keep their receipts safely.

WTF64

Keeping receipts is a good idea in general,in case of faulty goods or checking against statements, but you really shouldn't have to keep them in order to prove that you paid for a prescription just because some faceless company says you didn't.



Interestingly, I had to collect some more prescriptions yesterday and had to buy each one as a seperate transaction so it would be easier to trace on a bank statement. It was so disorganised at the Lloyds branch I use, that multiple customers were being served by one member of staff simultaneously. This caused problems as more than one customer hadn't got the right prescription. In fact, I had to check the prescriptions against the receipts and discovered that I hadn't been asked to pay for one. This was due to the dispensing pharmacist deciding to deal with it and he simply shoved the prescription over the desk, asked me to sign it and then gave me the meds. No payment taken. I found myself it the weird position of asking if I could pay!


During all this, I spoke to the member of staff that was serving me about the PCN problems. She said they were ' hot on it' at the moment, but she did tell me that if a customer doesnt sign the back of the form or fill in the amount paid then 'someone' will often sign it at the pharmacy for them even though the customer is soley responsible for doing this. Fraud comes to mind.


This morning I had a letter from NHSBSA with a copy of one of the so-called unpaid prescriptions that I asked for. The signature on the back is NOT anyone in my family and the box that says 'exemption certificate' has been ticked. I will, of course, be discussing this with Lloyds.

trinidadone

I currently have a prepaid certificate, to make sure I do not get falsely issued with a third PCN, i am assuming, I tick the box on the back saying I have a prepayment certificate, and sign/date the form, is there anything else i should do to make sure i am not wrongly sent a fine again?

WTF64

Tick part F, date and sign it. Thats all.



They may still try to fine you for not writing the date properly or making the tick too small or too big....anything really.


I spoke to the pharmacy manager earlier today to discuss the fraudulent signing and ticking of prescription forms. All I got was a half hearted apology and the excuse that she only started in December so anything before that is not her problem and they had now corrected my daughter on 'the system' as a payer. By that logic, my daughter can look forward to many more PCNs if they only corrected it yesterday.



She did however acknowledge that it was common for the forms to be 'completed' by the pharmacy in order to be able to process them. She also said that she was working on getting that practice stopped, blaming it on short term staff who didn't stay long.



I wonder how long she'll be staying?

Drawingaline

As someone who used to work in pharmacy this is a common issue. The green scripts tended to be OK, and they were kept and sent off at the end of the month. So any medications collected in feb would be counted and bagged up the last day of the month and collected by courier around the 5th March.

However the newer white electronic scripts were a nightmare. They were supposed to be 'claimed' daily, but due to increase pressure in pharmacy (staff shortages, less money with the NHS in general, needing access to the computer, often only one available which was also used for dispensing) they would sometimes build up for days. Then some poor person would have to stand there for often hours at a time clicking which exception box had been ticked onto the computer. This will lead to errors. I always tried to spend time seperating the paid and exempt ones before I started as it meant errors were less.

Also if you have any kind of certificate you are supposed to how it to the assistant so they can write the number and expiry date down. Most people who held a medical exemption certificate never seemed to carry it. And would get very angry as it isn't a legal requirement, there is an additional box to tick to show it hasn't been shown. Again, can lead to error.

I am not defending any pharmacy, although our pharmacy was incredibly well run by experienced staff for years, a takeover by a well know large company ran it into the ground within a year, but trying to show how human error is more likely to happen with the newer electronic system in this area.

All I can suggest is that people insist on filling out the back themselves, including signing and dating. Being insistant if the assistant says they can do it. And try to pay by card if possible rather than cash.

Drawingaline

And each script is done individually, so any scripts she paid for should go through as a payer as long as that is what the back says. As I said mistakes happen when one person is processing many scripts. Basically this aspect of te job was jsst added to already time pressured pharmacies rather than being sent away to be done externally.

I imagine her updating te system will be an actual note flagged on her notes to double check any that are processed in the future.

WTF64

I agree with you, mistakes can occur, but the greedy robots at NHSBSA don't understand and will issue a PCN without a second thought. It's then up to the recipient of that PCN to do all the legwork, when they haven't even done anything wrong.

pmduk

WTF64 wrote: »

I agree with you, mistakes can occur, but the greedy robots at NHSBSA don't understand and will issue a PCN without a second thought. It's then up to the recipient of that PCN to do all the legwork, when they haven't even done anything wrong.

That's over-harsh. As so frequently happens, the situation has been caused by a heavy-handed reaction to people criminally claiming exemptions.

Many people consider it a victimless crime, whereas in truth it deprived the public purse of millions of pounds.

Hopefully, in future, dispensed prescriptions can be endorsed with the amount paid, whivh might go some way to avoiding this.

WTF64

Over harsh, how?
I and my family always pay our way. Others that waltz through life freeloading off tax payers makes me sick and to be accused along with them makes me sick too. Hard-working taxpayers are always easy prey.
If a person pays for something and that transaction has gone through the till, that should be it. What screwed up system then allows that same person to be threatened just because someone else cant be bothered to join the dots and see that it HAS been paid for?
On a more basic level, why should a customer be penalised because some 'over worked' counter staff at a pharmacy don't do their job properly?

Off track a little, but when I'm standing in a queue waiting to PAY and some scrote comes in and thrusts his grubby hand across the counter only to be given his methadone or whatever.it is, then walks away without any question, makes me wonder why I pay taxes at all.
So, when a PCN drops through the letter box demanding even more money, I have every right to be harsh don't you think?