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Can we get refunds on Prescriptions when GP prescribes the wrong thing?

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  • MegS
    MegS Posts: 234 Forumite
    I had a row with my doctor over him prescribing Immigram when it quite clearly says if allergic/sensitive to sulphanamides then I shouldn't take it (I'm allergic to septerim not sure of spelling), it ended with him agreeing to pay me back out of his own pocket as they can't refund. He tried to make me feel sorry for him but if he can't read my notes that is not my problem, it clearly says on them that I am allergic to septerim and codeine and he should have checked the suitability.
  • Shona, it wasn't meant as a personal dig at you. GPs do a bloody hard job and they do it bloody well most of the time. You couldn't pay me enough to be a GP - I don't really want to do DREs to be honest! I get abused and shouted at as a community pharamcist, but I love my job as well.

    The public perception of GPs, and what some of the BMA spokespeople say to irritate me at times. GPs are contractors, so are self employed and private businesses (with the exception of employed salaried GPs). The system is similar with pharmacies (although we have companies that have multiple contracts), yet to listen to the BMA allowing a private company to have a GMS contract would be the end of the world.
  • Nicki
    Nicki Posts: 8,166 Forumite
    MegS wrote: »
    I had a row with my doctor over him prescribing Immigram when it quite clearly says if allergic/sensitive to sulphanamides then I shouldn't take it (I'm allergic to septerim not sure of spelling), it ended with him agreeing to pay me back out of his own pocket as they can't refund. He tried to make me feel sorry for him but if he can't read my notes that is not my problem, it clearly says on them that I am allergic to septerim and codeine and he should have checked the suitability.

    Crikey! I wouldn't do this in a year of Sundays. Could you not afford to pay the second prescription charge, or were you just making a point because you were annoyed he'd made an error?
  • dizzie
    dizzie Posts: 390 Forumite
    Interesting comments on this thread. I would be interested to know how the pharmacist that Shona knows dispenses the second prescription free of charge. If the mistake is spotted before it leaves the pharmacy, then all well and good. I don't know many pharmacists that would quibble at redoing the work free of charge, because they have not lost the stock.

    However, if the stock has left the pharmacy, this is a difficult one. Strictly speaking it is illegal for it to be returned and reused (although I think many pharmacists actually use their discretion on this one - e.g. if tablets are blister packed/sealed in original packet and have only been out of the pharmacy for an hour or so before it is brought back by someone known to them, they may allow them to be returned).

    In order to be paid for the medication issued, the precription must be sent to the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA); and of course each prescription carries a patient declaration on the back. If the patient pays for the prescription, the pharmacy needs to collect the correct fee. If they don't, the PPA will deduct the correct fees anyway from the amounts that they reimburse the pharmacy for the medication supplied. In summary, if drugs have to be wasted because an incorrect prescription is issued by a doctor, and if the patient is to be saved from having to pay a second prescription charge then either the surgery must make reimbursement from petty cash for the error made, or the pharmacy must foot the bill for the prescription fee or the lost stock (i.e. not submit the first erroneous script for payment).

    GPs are, when said and done, operating a business - just like the pharmacy. I believe that the surgery should be responsible for finding a way to make sure neither the patient, nor the pharmacy lose out financially when an error is made on a their part. I am sure that most of us appreciate the work that our GPs, nurses, pharmacists....etc etc all do in providing such a valuable public service. But we are all human - we all make mistakes sometimes - and when we do, we need to have the humility to stand up and carry the can for them.

    PS. Couldn't agree more that the prescription charge is a disgraceful tax on sick people and it is about time it was disbandoned as it has been in Wales (and I understand it will be in Scotland). Why should someone who is deficient in throxine, be able to get not only thyroxine, but every single prescribable drug/appliance free of charge on the NHS...and yet the person on a bucket-load of heart medication has to pay a precription charge for every item received. How have the government got away with their prescription tax policy for so long!!
  • dizzie
    dizzie Posts: 390 Forumite
    ...and just to address another point that has been raised by Shona about being spat at, verbally abused and even assaulted...I think doctors should be able to remove patients who indulge in this sort of behaviour from their lists...and (this might be a bit contentious), they should be able to fine (or discharge from their books) patients who waste their time and money (and that of the NHS) by repeatedly DNA-ing on appointments.

    Trouble is, I feel that it is all about too many human rights these days... and some have a mentality of "I have a right to this and I expect that!...and I can do or behave in whichever way I choose and still expect you to do what I want!"

    Perhaps we should be teaching people whe they are still at school about what "civility" means, about the art of discussion, debating and negotiation!

    But whatever a person does. No matter what their occupation or their income is, I think that everyone deserves to be treated with a bit of respect. Why should the person who chooses to behave without moral self-control and like a deranged animal...still expect to have all the normal rights and privelages of a human being?
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