Prescription Charges- Anything I can do??

Olliebeak

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

squeaky

Hi all,

I'll move this one across to the Health board for you. You should be able to find quite a few threads there advising on prescription charges.

Good luck

prescription charges threads here on Health & Beauty MoneySaving

somewhere_sunlight

If you are in Scotland the pre payment card for 4 months is £17 and an inidvidual prescription in down to £5

LondonDiva

Olliebeak wrote: »

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue.

Nope.

Gps are discouraged from supplying more than 3 months supply of drugs - unless they can justify it. You are not being given the old supply because your GP has chosen this method or has decided to monitor your / patients' compliance with medication / recall system / whatever differently.

The person ultimately deciding what drug you have is the GP.

Ps - there really is not that much money made from charges when you look at the actual cost of drugs.

Olliebeak wrote: »

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

moneysaving_pharmacist

PPCs can be back dated, up to a month I think. However, to be able to claim the prescription charges back you have to ask for a NHS reciept (FP57) at the time of dispensing (to prevent fraud). If you use an independent/small chain pharmacy they may bend the rule and do a reciept for you, but it's unlikely.

moneysaving_pharmacist

Olliebeak wrote: »

My GP's surgery has just stopped issuing prescriptions for 2-month periods - so my three items (x2) every 2 months has gone to 3 items every month! Looks like the government have ordered GP's to stop doing this in order to raise revenue. I have a Blood Pressure tablet and a Water tablet which I know can be combined into one tablet - gonna ask about this happening - at least it will be one less item to have to pay for.

Its not a revenue raising issue, it's a waste reduction issue, and hopefully improves patient care.

The NHS spends about £11bn per year on drugs, prescription charges generate about £500m per year, off the top of my head. The vast majority of prescriptions are exempt from charges, and drugs often cost more than the prescription charge - today I dispensed 6 weeks worth of Glivec, which costs £1600 per pack of 30.

The amount of drugs that are wasted by patients is extraordinary. The more patients are supplied with at a time, the more wastage there seems to be. Next time you are in a pharmacy, ask them how much medication they get returned to them. I dispose of around 8 large bags (larger than bin bags) of returned meds every 2-3 months. Thats 8 bags after the strips of tablets have been taken out of their cardboard cartons.

Only supplying one months worth of medication at a time could also allow quicker idenitfication of patients who are not ordering their medication regularly.

Bossyboots

moneysaving_pharmacist wrote: »

PPCs can be back dated, up to a month I think. However, to be able to claim the prescription charges back you have to ask for a NHS reciept (FP57) at the time of dispensing (to prevent fraud). If you use an independent/small chain pharmacy they may bend the rule and do a reciept for you, but it's unlikely.

That's right, they can be backdated for one month but you have to have the FP57 to do so. When you receive your backdated pre-payment certificate you then go to a pharmacy and they will refund the charges from the FP57. Not all pharmacies do the refunds.

I use a family pharmacy which although part of a large chain, did write me an FP57 after the event because they still had the prescription on site. It is always worth asking, but I did go back after only a few days.

As for the question of how much money is made from the charges versus the cost of drugs, my BP tablets cost the NHS £1.28 for 28 tablets. One of my other meds though costs £64 for 56 tablets (28 days supply) so it's swings and roundabouts on cost.

calleyw

moneysaving_pharmacist wrote: »

Its not a revenue raising issue, it's a waste reduction issue, and hopefully improves patient care.

I do understand why they do it. But my husband takes 7 different types of meds. Only one is taken weekly. Some are to protect against side effects of other meds. He gets them all bi-monthly.

Some of them he could be on for years not months and has been on some of them since Oct 2006.

Surley it is up to the GP to make the call of prescriptions . In my husbands case the choice is take the meds or die. So he is hardly going to waste them, throw them away or let them go out of date.

Mind you thinking about it my husbands consultant prescriptions are for 3 months.

Yours

Calley