NHS prescription charges effectively doubled

kazmeister

Does anyone else’s surgery now only issue 1 months worth of medication rather than 2. We were told it was a national thing which would effectively have doubled the price of regular medicines

Emmia

kazmeister said:

Does anyone else’s surgery now only issue 1 months worth of medication rather than 2. We were told it was a national thing which would effectively have doubled the price of regular medicines

It may be medication specific, but you can offset this rise with a prepayment certificate.

MrsPorridge

Yes, our's has been doing it for the last 4 years!

Flugelhorn

practice I worked at did this for the last 20 years - pretty standard. get yourself a pre-payment cert 

kazmeister

I was shocked when we got told, no prior warning, had to first phone the chemist then the surgery, to be met with a load of bull from the latter. I am lucky that I have just slipped into the free prescriptions band by age but it did make me think how others might struggle to maintain their health

Emmia

kazmeister said:

I was shocked when we got told, no prior warning, had to first phone the chemist then the surgery, to be met with a load of bull from the latter. I am lucky that I have just slipped into the free prescriptions band by age but it did make me think how others might struggle to maintain their health

A prepayment certificate is the answer. If the medication is HRT then there's a specific (cheaper) prepayment certificate for those medications.

Spoonie_Turtle

As far as I can recall, the rationale was to reduce cost and waste, particularly if people changed meds / changed doses (or died) and had a load left that they couldn't use and just had to be thrown away.

On a case-by-case basis GPs may have discretion to prescribe for longer each time, such as if someone's been on a stable dosage (and combination, where relevant) for years and their health is fairly stable.  Subject to local policies of course, there may be some areas where they realistically have no discretion. 

[My own experience of this is when I queried the time they suddenly prescribed just one month for me ages ago, long before I was aware of the policy, and part of my query was that my dosage had stayed the same for years so I didn't understand why the prescription had changed.  The following prescription was back up to ~2½months' worth (it was a strange number of tablets, not a multiple of anything related to dose or length of time, just a multiple that ensured dispensing whole boxes), although the most recent one has been 2 months which I can understand.]

Badboi

I get mine 2 monthly, but I’ve been on them for 15 years (T2 diabetic).  Only thing I get once a month is some new meds as they might need to be changed but once on them for 12 months go said they’ll put them into a 2 month cycle too 

EnPointe

kazmeister said:

Does anyone else’s surgery now only issue 1 months worth of medication rather than 2. We were told it was a national thing which would effectively have doubled the price of regular medicines

as usual  when  prescription charges  are mentioned 

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc

anyone   who  pays for prescriptions and  has 1 or more regular medications   will benefit from a PPC

a lot of places have had   1 month  'scripts for a very long time  for many  meds , 

 there has been and remains  an issue with  excessive issues of prescritiosn and  the amount of meds  ( and NHS funds ) wasted   

EnPointe

kazmeister said:

I was shocked when we got told, no prior warning, had to first phone the chemist then the surgery, to be met with a load of bull from the latter. I am lucky that I have just slipped into the free prescriptions band by age but it did make me think how others might struggle to maintain their health

with an annual Prepayment  certiifcate on a direct debit  

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc

 or by actually claiming   assistance they may  ber entitled to 

david29dpo

Just to add my GP always does 56 days worth !