'You didn’t die as a child? Pay for your prescription' blog discussion

PinkT

What worries me that is my grandson and others like him don't just have pills and potions to take. on top of all those he has IV drips at home and IV antibiotics too. He would be liable to pay for all the equipment needed to administer these. ok he gets DLA but he's gonna spend most of it on medication.

tylersbabe

deleted...

Floxxie

I'm on Thyroxine and am very confused about why I get everything else free...

It is a very crazy system but at least there is one...

Floxxie

worldsgreatestshopper

My son has cystic fibrosis, and will be 19 in Septemeber when he goes to University. I recently wrote to Gordon Brown, and asked why it is right that i will lose family allowance for him, and carers allowance yet he will need more help than ever before? Why should he have to use his grant to pay for the medication that keeps him alive? People with Cystic Fibrosis already go through so much, the Government should be doing all they can to help them. I got a reply from the Department of Health, telling me he should buy a prepayment certificate. I have since found out that the CF Trust will pay for the first one, but when we fundraise for CF we expect the money to be spent on research, not paying prescription charges. CF should be on the exempt list

full-time-mum

I think that the whole prescription charge system needs changing.

It is just not right that you don't pay prescription charges in Scotland and Wales but that we have to in England.

Its not right that CF sufferes (not to mention asthmatics and a whole host of others) pay for drugs essential to keep them alive whilst a diabetic gets all their drugs (including, for example, hayfever tablets, headache pills etc that may be totally irrelavant to their condition)

Obviously, I want free prescriptions but if we have a pay then I will put up with it without too much moaning but it should be consistent and fair and not a case of some of us subsidising the others.

full-time-mum

I wrote to my MP shortly after I married pointing out the unfairness. I wanted to know why my OH had to buy all his asthma drugs yet someone with diabetes or a colostomy etc get ALL their drugs free.

I got pretty much the same response as worldsgreatestshopper.

blue_monkey_2

I too have asthma and have ofte wondered why I have to pay for prescriptions as without them I could die. Whats more they have changed them to SMALLER doses (120 puff per inhaler rather than 200) so now I need more of them!!

To change this angle slightly, I have wondered why people on benefits get all their prescriptions free. Why could they not have a reduced charge for them (say £2.50). A friend of mine on DSS used to get everything she coul on prescription - headache tablets, aqueous cream (costs what £1 a tube!) even sun lotion or the kids. Sometimes I was left shaking my head at the stuff she used to get on prescription. If she had to pay then she would not bothered to do this and would get it from the shops like the rest of us do - life saving drugs aside, this goes back to the other discussion, if there was a charge then it would stop people going to the docs to get silly things on prescription. So this has always made me wonder why she could get all of this stuff for free and yet I had to pay for inhalers to keep me alive.

A little tip though, make sure you can get the maximum number of tablets/inhalers/etc... per prescription that the doctor will allow. I asked for 6 as I was moving and wanted to make sure I had a good stock but the doc gave me 4 and she said this was the max before the people in charge (whoever they are) questioned the prescription. But it mean I got 4 when I usually get prescribed just 2 so that helped. Make sure you vists the doctor and tell them you would like the max amount allowed on the prescription because of the cost of them. Most would be sympathetic I am sure. HTH.

Svenena

This is probably a bit late, but regarding the person who's son is going to uni, if he is living away from home his income (grant/loan) will most likely be below the amount necessary to qualify for free prescriptions under the low income scheme. Most students qualify for this, although it is not widely publicised. It also entitles you to free dental care and some other NHS services.

Interestingly, I was once told (might have been in a sociology class) that if EVERYONE paid for their prescriptions (kids, low income, pensioners, etc) it would only cost 50p each rather than the £7.50. Don't know if anyone can verify?

I agree with everyone - the system needs a shake up (can't believe the thing about getting free hayfever tablets!) - it's ridiculous that the list of exemptions should have gone so long un-updated considering all the medical advances that have been made since then!

Flibertigibit

Looking for something else and found this thread. Worldsgreatestshopper says she wrote to Gordon Brown about CF patients not getting free prescriptions, but only got a reply from the DOH. Now that Gordon's own son has got CF you'd think he would be a tad more sympathetic, but there again, he's not paying for the prescriptions - we are as GB's salary presumably comes from our taxes?
Slightly more selfishly - I have got very severe myopia (short-sidedness), to the point where I have always been able to have free eye tests for my "complex lenses" and I get some sort of paltry sum towards them. My specs cost my anything between £250-£400 and without them I am totally disabled and unable to work (and pay taxes), so I feel that the health service should have either provided them or subsidized the cost substantially.

mumps

spacerus22 wrote: »

I was diagnosed with hypertension eleven years ago it was so high 277/135 that I was put into hospital immediately. I have been on up to three medications a day since then. My twin brother has an overactive, or underactive, thyroid this means he got free prescriptions. My wife who worked for a doctor at the time was told, the thyroid problem would make you feel unwell, but it won't kill you!! Whereas my hypertension could have easily caused a stroke or heart attack. Or so I was told. My solution, obviously was a pre payment certificate. It was not painful to write out a check for £90 or so, but very painful to pay £18 every four weeks in cash!! We vare both over 60 now so it is academic, but the inequities for others persist.

I don't know about your brother but underactive thyroid can be life threatening. My doctor ignored my symptoms, decided I was depressed. In a routine medical nurse noted my blood pressure was dangerously low (so thats why I kept fainting.) She took a blood test, said, "pop in next week for results." Less than 24 hours later doctor phoned me and said he needed to see me immediately. Turned out my thyroid level was dangerously low, it took months for my dose of thyroxine to be gradually increased to the therapeutic dose. I think the rules need looking at but please don't make judgements about other peoples problems, its easy to assume an under active thyroid is a small problem but it isn't.