Prescription Charges

[lainey lou]

I had to administer some drugs at work a few months a go that cost �500 a shot!!!
Was so scared I'd draw it up wrong or spill it or something!!

[SlugLobber]

Not as easy as that, I have MS and DLA and still have to pay for my Prescriptions which some months can run into �70 mark... All because my wife works and I have a pension.

That's the trouble with this country. If you actually get off your bum and do something, then you're penalised.

I'm sure that years ago, a prescription charge was per form, not per medication. I got quite a shock when I needed different meds after my riding accident. Around �20 for one visit to the Dr. Eek!

[HeyWayne]

No mention of the drugs companies yet...

[OverWyreGrower]

Both Mr OWG and I need regular prescriptions, probably for life in both cases (and we are 28 and 30 years old). We now have pre-payment cards, as we have to pay for every single item we have. Both of us work full-time, so don't qualify for the free prescriptions.

The reason I have a prepayment card is that after starting a new course of medication, I asked if they could change my script so that I would get 3 months worth of tablets at a time, instead of a month's worth. It would be cheaper for us to do this, as �7.10 a month, on top of the other stuff is ridiculous. They refused to do this, and said I had to get them monthly.

That's when we got prepayment cards... we pay approx �200 a year for 2 of them!

[di]

No mention of the drugs companies yet...

Surely you're not suggesting that the cause for such hideous prices is by any way linked to the greed of the FatCats that run these drug companies???......if you are...then I totally agree!!!
I'm not quite clever enough to argue my point,so I'll disappear of to the lottie now!

[ixi1456]

As some one who is taking 4 diferent types of medication a day it cost me �28.00 a month..that might not sound a lot but when you only get �84 a week (higher rate incapacity) it is as others have said you cannot get free scripts when on this benefit but if you were on jobseekers or other benefits you get everything free..you dont have much choice being on incapacity benefit and you get nothing..

[PAULW]

If you get income support as part of your benefit you can get free presciptions

[srodders]

Just had to pay daughters doctors bill for last month - �180. That's just the doctors, prescriptions are extra. Worth every penny though. and as piskie says, it keeps her well(ish). Good job operations are free or we'd be stuffed!!

[HeyWayne]

Good job operations are free or we'd be stuffed!!

Amen to that - I've seen the bill that have come in for my back "procedures" via health insurance. Oh.......my........word! I hate to think what the cost was when I actually had the surgey.

[HayleyB]

I have a yearly pre-payment cert, have done for years now. I feel it is unjust for those in England to pay whilst over the border it's free and, double whammy, being paid for in part by those in England. Can you imagine how sickening that would be for someone who happens to live just a few yards on the wrong side of those borders. If the other members of the "UK" gets stuff free then it should come out of their taxes alone

[kirsty b]

I had a grumble as I have had 3 different prescriptions this week at �7.10 a time, but I would rather pay up, take them and get better than not have them. I'm lucky in that I don't have a long term condition like some peeps do. I do feel that peeps with long term conditions should have them free (or at least significantly reduced) because the costs do mount up, but those of us that only need them sometimes (like me) should just pay up. I need a prescription once a year, if that.
Some of you may agree, some not, but thats my tuppence worth.

[TonyF]

One of my favourite subjects.

Despite having a medical condition that is identified throughout the world - except the UK - as being cancer and in the same family as leukaemia, I had to pay for my chemo on prescription. Jenny and I were both in work so went for the season ticket option. But when I was told I was too sick to work - second time - and I had to claim IB, I couldn't claim for free prescriptions because she earned too much.

Can't remember what the cost was back then but when we came here, I was immediately put onto 100% of all my costs until the age of 65 - not only the chemo but all the drugs for the additioonal conditions caused by the blood condition also. OK, the French health system is technically bankrupt but the French Government dare not touch it in any fundemental way, any changes are really small and any real threat against the system gets people - including the medics - out on the streets.

Originally my chemo - which was self injected to save the nurse coming every night - was �750 per week. Price here is now €270 per week, so about �230 at today's prices, decrease over a period of about 12 years. So whilst the prescription charge was a lot lower than my main drug cost, when you're actually being prescribed between 11 and 14 drugs in one go, a season ticket is the only way to go.

What I don't understand is why do some people with cancers still have to pay in the Uk whilst others don't?

[petal]

Whilst I do think certain conditions that require lifetime medication should be free (diabetes, asthma, thyroid conditions etc) I remember in Denmark, you had to pay a lot more for medicine and my brother, who recently returned from California says our system is fantastic here.

[greysquirrel]

All prescriptions throughout the UK should be free. That's what the NHS was all about - free at point of use.

I'm lucky to live in Wales and when prescriptions charges were abolished some people would try and get all sorts of things (like verruca cream) out of their gps.

[Flytrap]

I used to work in a hospital pharmacy, and it really used to annoy me when women used to hand over their prescription for IVF treatment and not pay as they were on benefits.
I'm all for the right to have children and to get IVF treatment, but there is something wrong when everyone else has to pay for that person to get pregnant and then have to pay for the child to be brought up when it is born. I wouldn't dream of having children if I couldn't afford to bring them up.
I know that's generalising and there will be genuine cases but the ones I'm on about... well lets just say they have probably never worked and have no intention of working ever if possible.