New NHS tool lets you check if you can get free prescriptions - MSE News

So many people get it free, one wonders if all the admin concerned with charging a minority is worth it.

Anyway, so much for the principle of "free at the point of need"...

elsien wrote: »

You'd soon notice the difference if you had to pay full whack for prescriptions. The few private precriptions I've had have been eye watering.

I suspect the PP was discussing the difference between the NHS prescription charge and all prescriptions being issued free

elsien wrote: »

You'd soon notice the difference if you had to pay full whack for prescriptions. The few private precriptions I've had have been eye watering.

Are you saying the private prescription charge was expensive, or are you rolling in the cost of the drugs which you would have to pay for when using a private prescription?

The NHS can only get away with charging £8.45 because there is no alternative if you want access to NHS-paid for drugs. If there was competition, I'm sure many pharmacists would pull something off the shelf for much less. The reality is, the prescription charge covers NHS inefficiency and/or cross subsidy for those that get it free and/or a way of making people pay for the health care they need.

A few years ago a friend of mine went into Boots* with a private prescription for a cancer drug. The cost of the drug plus prescription charge was less than the NHS prescription charge. The woman said is sometimes happens because the Boots charge for a private prescription was less than an NHS one. (Because they don't have to pay anything to the NHS.) In this case the drugs were very cheap - so less than the difference between Boot's charge and the NHS fee. From memory Boots said their charge was £4 at a time when the NHS charge was something like £7.

A friend of mine always ticked the "free entitlement" box. Eventually he got a letter asking him to prove his free entitlement. He ignored the letters and he got a penalty. He ignored that and they said they'd take him to court to recover the penalty. He ignored that, and nothing happened.

It does seem strange to me that perfectly healthy people can see a GP free of charge, but once he's decided you need a medicine, you have to pay a charge to access it.

Personally I buy the stuff I need in France or the far east. I keep a year's supply - and guess what. The cost of the drugs are less than the prescription charges I'd pay to the NHS. Plus what I get is the original branded version, made in the UK with proper English notes inside. The NHS are issuing a generic - so they are certainly coining it.


*not sure it was Boots, if not I believe it was a chain. But certainly the gist of what the pharmacist said was that the private prescription was less because they don't have to pay the NHS.