How to get a perscription from your Vet ?

snowman2_2

Legally since October 2005 for a period of 3 years (up for review this autumn) any veterinary prescription is free. This is because of a law brought in by the Office of Fair Trading. The intention of this was to shift the charging of vets away from the drugs and towards consultation fees. So in theory, we should charge more for our time and less for the drugs, including offering free prescriptions. However, there are a few caveats.

The law regarding repeat prescriptions was tightened up at the time and most vets interpret the maximum interval as 3- 4 months but this will depend on the drug. For an uncomplicated bladder incontinence 6 months should be OK, for cancer meds you are probably looking at monthly check ups. The vet is entitled to charge for his / her time for these check ups.
Secondly, the vet should be able to give you the drugs there and then - do you want to wait for an online pharmacy to post the drugs before starting treatment? Also, it is illegal for a pharmacy to give generic drugs instead of the veterinary version. We are limited by something called the cascade system and if a veterinary version of the drug is available we have to use it, even if there is a cheaper human generic. This upsets enough vets as well as clients but it is a criminal offence for a vet or a pharmacy to substitute a human drug so Tishywish - your pharmacist may be breaking the law if they are giving you human drugs instead of the vet ones.

It is also worth asking if your vet will price match an online pharmacy. We have done that a few times, sometimes we are cheaper anyway. However, we only price match the established online pharmacies, some of the newer sites seem to be selling well under wholesale price and I wont pricematch unless a site has a proven business record.

Saying all that, we try to look after our clients and try to provide a good value for money service. We give out very few prescriptions and most of those that ask for prescriptions, come back to use in the end. Having a good relationship with your vets is important, you should be able to trust them to look after your pet without ripping you off - a pet care partnership. Hope your dogs ears get better.

tishywish

Ref the drugs I had, there was no veterinary alternative and there is still none available so I had no choice but to use the human version.

For things such as Metacam, which is a drug that was going to be used on my cat long term, it's still more cost effective to get the drug from a pharmacy than the vets - surely it's better for the owner to be able to afford longer term treatment this way? I hope I have a good relationship with my vet but wouldn't hesitate to ask for a prescription for long term drugs. Of course, for emergency treatment or somehing that's needed immediately it's different.

snowman2_2

tishywish wrote: »

Ref the drugs I had, there was no veterinary alternative and there is still none available so I had no choice but to use the human version.

Fair enough. The pharmacy will be able to order in far bigger quantities than your vet and get a discount from the manufacturer from bulk. Even a 3 or 4 vet practice wont order enough of some common vet drugs to get decent discounts, let alone human drugs. The pharmaceutical business runs a lot on bulk sales.

Affordability is important but it is worth asking your vet if they can price match. Emergency work, especially out-of-hours is not very profitable and the out-of-hours service is often run at a loss compared to the true cost of providing the service. If your vet can price match (and we can't always) it keeps a valuable income source in the practice, to a degree subsidising the emergency work.

The average vet earns 1/3 of an average GP, still a decent wage, true, but if too much drugs income goes to a pharmacy, prices elsewhere will have to go up. I guess what I am saying is talk to your vet about price first. If they can't compete or are not interested, go to the pharmacy but at the end of the day, most vets will try to help in whatever way.

brenda_p_a

Jo_Blev wrote: »

Hi

Could anybody please advise if you get charged for getting a written perscription from your vet ? Ive been told by law they must give you one for free, unsure if this is true.
Our dog has repeat ear infections which are treated by the vet, however he has a repeat perscription which the vet likes to see him before perscribing each time. Im sure its just to get the visit fee and then perscribes the same medication ! In all it costs us nearly £50
Weve looked on the internet and we can get the same medication from a vet store online however he needs a perscription to dispense the medication to us for £12.99 ex p&P
Can anybody please advise the procedure ?

It is against the law for a vet to charge you for a prescription


All vets must offer clients a written prescription at the time of prescribing medication. The legal changes in 2005 are designed to ensure all customer have a choice regarding where they purchase medication.

Your vet may apply an administration fee to written prescriptions but this must apply to all medication - ie they must also charge this fee to clients who purchase their medication from them





http://www.petmeds.co.uk/t-help_faq.aspx#vetinsist


click here to try keep it that way

virgin_moneysaver

i rang my vet after he charged my husband for the prescription & he said it was to cover admin costs not a fee for the script!!

I'm loathe to challenge it any further as he may just refuse to see us anymore & the other local vets are useless - in fact we travel a round trip of 12 miles to the vets

brenda_p_a

virgin_moneysaver wrote: »

i rang my vet after he charged my husband for the prescription & he said it was to cover admin costs not a fee for the script!!

I'm loathe to challenge it any further as he may just refuse to see us anymore & the other local vets are useless - in fact we travel a round trip of 12 miles to the vets

Ask the vets whether they would charge you the admin costs if you were to buy the medication from his/her practice.If he/she says no you would'nt need to pay the admin costs if you buy from my practice then they are breaking the law.If they charge it for one script they have to charge it for every script,whether they get the meds from them or not,its either ALL pay it or NONE pay it

cmw1

Hello everyone!

I've seen the error of my ways and realised that buying flea treatment and worming tablets from the vets was ridiculously expensive. So, I went off and found the products cheaper on a few other pet meds suppliers. However, some of the stronger ones require a prespcription from the vet, which is probably a good thing with all the looneys that are about. But anyway, I rang the vets and they (very grudgingly) said they would do us a prescription. They messed us around for a few days, and when we finally went to pick it up they charged us £10 for it. :mad: I know I'll save that almost straight away when ordering the treatments, but aren't they supposed to give us a prescription free? The vet nurse said that it was a fee for the vet's time (for printing a sheet off the computer, which the vet probably didn't even do) but the invoice says "prescription charge".

Can anyone shed any light on this? Also, does anyone recommend a particular online supplier? We use GiveorTake, so at the moment Petmeds is the winner, but anyfeedback would be greatly appreciated!


:money:

lowis

I recently received an email about prescription charges...vets are not supposed to charge a fee, but this allchanges in October, seems your vet has been hasty! I have copied this from the PetMeds email I received:

Prescription Charges

You may already be aware but from the 30th October your vet will be able to charge your for prescriptions again. The Office of Fair Trading ruled in 2005 that veterinary practices had a monopoly on the market and put in a ruling which allowed the consumers more choice. This ruling will be expiring in October unfortunately.


Might be an idea to ask your vet to write out a 6 month prescription before the rules kick in...save you some money on more prescription charges.

BTW - my vet has never charged me for his time in writing out prescriptions, in fact he willingly offered me the info that I should get all the drugs that my cat took for lymphoma from the pharmacy as it would be much cheaper, he had no problem with writing out scrips for them either.

cmw1

I also requested a prescription from the vets today, nothing fancy, just flea treatment and worming tablets. They charged me £10, saying that it was a fee for the vet's time, not the actual prescription. Isn't this the same thing?!!! Has anyone challenged their vet over this? What was the outcome?!! I'm pretty sure they're out of line.
There's more information on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons website about this, including complaints procedures etc.

lowis

it is currently illegal to charge a fee, this changes in October though...so next time you ask for a script, ask for a sim-month one if possible!

my vet willingly offered scripts that i could take to the local pharmacy - my cat had lymphoma and her meds were pricey through him. i had to buy the chemo drugs from him...but simple things like steroids and appetite stimulants went out on script.