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NHS Prescriptions


thombleached

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HOLA441

Swedish friend living here tells me that in the supposedly socialist Utopia of Sweden, everybody pays for prescriptions, even her dad who was over 90 and not well off. There is an annual cap, though, for those who need a lot. 

People also pay for visits to the GP (approx £18) and A&E, and physio, etc. 

Of course no govt. would ever dare to introduce such charges here. 

We had an elderly friend who was not remotely hard up, who was on a lot of medications, and would stockpile vast amounts of them.  More than once I counted over 60 of 5 or 6 different preparations piled up in his bathroom.  He was on the tight side and I swear that if he'd had to pay even a couple of £ for each he would not have repeatedly accepted items he didn't need.  More than once the whole lot were disposed of by a visiting ex-nurse friend, only to pile up again.  

I really don't see why pensioners in comfortable circumstances should not pay - there could be an annual cap, like in Sweden, for those who genuinely need lots of meds. 

I bet our friend wasn't only one, far from it. 

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10 hours ago, Mikhail Liebenstein said:

Not getting at you, but I hate the phrase "paid plenty into the system" , it is often used by people who have paid £3k income tax PA for the last 20 years (i.e. £60k)  when many pay more that in 1 year.

Plenty in the sense that it more than covers what they might now be taking out of it. 

 

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3 minutes ago, gilf said:

Plenty in the sense that it more than covers what they might now be taking out of it. 

 

Not really because you don't pay taxes just to cover the NHS. 

Someone else mentioned nominal charges. I can't understand how here in Wales prescriptions are free. Why don't they charge a small amount for prescriptions to everyone, even those on benefits. Even if it's £1 per prescription. I have the same issues with school dinners though so perhaps that's just me. 

My sister is a doctor's receptionist, ex paramedic, and she tells me the amount of people with 6 or 7 items on prescription is staggering and they also get a fair bit of grief from patients demanding stuff like paracetamol prescriptions, rather than going to Tesco and paying 29p for a packet. 

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12 hours ago, SarahBell said:

So we'd need a 14 day holiday too? Oh well the sunshine would be nice! :)

Can I set up a holiday company sending people through their health system?

The thought had crossed my mind!

It would be a wonderful place to set up nursing homes too...

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HOLA447

The bloke I mentioned in previous  post died a few month ago and we are staying ATM with his wife. 

She just showed me a bag of at least a dozen boxes of (free) prescription paracetamol, 100 tablets in each box, and asked whether I wanted any.  

This is just one example.  Should add that he was a very determined man and except for the very last weeks she had zero control over what meds he was supplied with. 

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15 hours ago, Mark Uttley said:

If someone presents a prescription at a pharmacy and doesn't have proof of exemption, the pharmacy do not charge the patient. They simply put a cross on the back of the prescription to say that they haven't seen the exemption. It's up to the pricing bureau (or whatever it is called now) to check out whether the patient should pay. They can either demand payment, or issue a fine for a false declaration.

Definitely different here!!

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42 minutes ago, Bossybabe said:

Definitely different here!!

If someone signs the back of a prescription and ticks an exemption box the pharmacist is contractually obliged to dispense the medication. If he/she refuses they could be disciplined by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

If you exclude the people exempt because of age (their age is usually on the script), then I would say that fewer than half the people who claimed exemption had any proof with them. If I had insisted that they pay, then my pharmacy would have been burned down by the end of day's trade.

Pharmacists receive no payment for collecting prescription charges, and are, in effect, unpaid tax collectors. If your local pharmacy are behaving like this then you should switch pharmacies.

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HOLA4410
1 hour ago, Mark Uttley said:

If someone signs the back of a prescription and ticks an exemption box the pharmacist is contractually obliged to dispense the medication. If he/she refuses they could be disciplined by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

If you exclude the people exempt because of age (their age is usually on the script), then I would say that fewer than half the people who claimed exemption had any proof with them. If I had insisted that they pay, then my pharmacy would have been burned down by the end of day's trade.

Pharmacists receive no payment for collecting prescription charges, and are, in effect, unpaid tax collectors. If your local pharmacy are behaving like this then you should switch pharmacies.

It's not a problem for me. I always used to pay for prescriptions but now I'm over 60. It's interesting that pharmacists are contractually obliged to dispense. I'll bet we see a change to the contract in the pipeline. 

In my role I am expected not only the know which benefits attract exemptions and which do not, but to refuse treatment to people in pain who have no proof of exemption and no money. I've raised it at work as a personal safety issue, particularly at the weekend when there are only three of us in the clinic, with dentist and nurse in the surgery behind a closed door. My panic button rings on the wall just behind me. 

Of course, on the Isle of Wight it's unlikely that anyone would kick off in a way I couldn't deal with but I have still been made to feel vulnerable by being placed in this situation. 

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