Paracetamol prescriptions

I am prescribed Paracetamol for back & join pain, max 8 per day, I cannot take Ibrufen due to Gastritis which means I am prone to Stomach bleeds, can't take Asperin for the same reason. Tramadol sends me "away with the fairies" which means I can't drive, in fact I'm not safe to be out on my own

I am only 61 but have not paid for my Prescriptions since I was diagnosed with Epilepsy in 2003, I am also now Type 2 Diabetic.

I am unable to work & live on a tight income mostly benefits, I could not afford to buy Paracetamol "over the counter", although I drive I only use my car for essential journeys & go to Supermarket no more than twice a month, I could not traipse around town (7 miles away) travelling from Chemist to Chemist to stockpile tablets, parking is often an issue & I struggle to walk any distance.

I have 9 different medications on Prescription, Parecetamol is only one of those the rest are all essential for controlling my various conditions. I am at the moment having a battle to get my GP to prescribe my Anti-Histamine, "over the counter" ones make me drowsy although they're not supposed to. I was on prescription Anti-Histamine for over 20 years.

My local Chemist collects my Prescription from Surgery & delivers once a week, a service I used when I was unable to drive for 10 months (down to DVLA)

Two issues here I feel - 'agree strongly that doctors should not prescribe drugs that cost pence bought over the counter, and also I so agree with Mspjam123; isn't it high time the NHS/government got to grips with the drug companies? I read recently of a family owned company who have hiked the price of the cheaper much used drugs about 500% over the last few years - we all pay for this, and these grasping people have become staggeringly rich as a result.

I've read this thread with great interest and whilst I can see this must represent a massive NHS overspend by many I can only assume they have no experience of the prolonged use of such medication and probably live in an urban environment where access to shops and other facilities is easy..

When my OH required paracetamol at a rate of 8 a day to support his treatment they were not at first on his repeat prescription. Living in a village with no shops and only a weekly bus allowing 2 hours for dealing with all shopping, banking and other matters it was a nightmare. I didn't drive and my OH didn't want people to know he was ill so I couldn't ask others to bring in items for me. Once the medication was added to his list I no longer had to worry. Similarly, we were offered delivery of prescriptions on a fortnightly basis which continues to this day. Each village in our practice enjoys this service regardless of how many patients it may be serving.

Before advocating blanket bans on anything in life I try considering the circumstances of those using the service. This applies to judgements on those using food banks, drop-in centres and many others issues.

I hate means testing !! Often people will not apply for reasons of pride or just can't cope with it all and it can cost more to administer than blanker coverage. What is wrong with people who are better off getting what they paid in for?

I do agree about pricing paracetamols etc but I also feel that after a while they don't do anything much and people are probably better off not taking them over extended periods of time.

Maybe the NHS can address this pricing, I had a chum who was rep for a major drug comany and he was able to give GP's ad consultants all sorts of perks, M&S voucher, mini breaks......

The whole system needs a clean up.The people at the coal face working their socks off and other wasting money hand over fist......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

A friend of ours works as a doctor's receptionist and is amazed by what people manage to get and usually it is people who get free prescriptions. My husband (aged 70) gets aspirin - but it is on the same scrip as 7 other heart medications. We'd certainly not bother with a prescription for simple over the counter meds on their own, you can pick them all up so cheaply elsewhere.
More worrying to me is that she tells me that there are people with absolutely no real medical problems who visit the doctor every week. They can't be refused an appointment just in case there is a real problem. This is far more expensive for the NHS than a free painkiller prescription. It has often been suggested that a small fee for a visit to a GP would solve this problem.

Again, it's very important that the doctor knows that he is taking aspirin and the dose he is taking. The practice will be paid for the prescription even though aspirin is very cheap so they do benefit financially. As for the second thing you mention, cc, yes, this is a problem. All I can suggest is that, if people feel that they are getting free prescriptions that they would rather be paying for, they donate the money to charity [ditto the winter fuel payment]. Much easier than having to means test everything.

I don't think that the system of prescription charge vs. cost of the drugs is quite as simple as we are imagining it to be, as the pharmacist would obviously make a loss when they dispense the more expensive drugs. They don't simply receive the £8.60, this is a standard prescription charge and I'm assuming that they are reimbursed for the actual cost of the drugs dispensed (plus a handling charge?).

For many rural pharmacies the fact that they dispense prescriptions is a lifesaver as they would not be financially viable without it - delivering prescriptions to people who cannot collect them is a service that that they willingly provide to keep this income. Even in urban locations many pharmacies also provide a delivery service as it is a necessary income stream for them.

It always puzzled me that the 99p store we used to have before it was taken over by Poundland would sell 3 pkts of paracetomol for 99p and yet you were only allowed 2 pkts in any other shop. I don,t know if this is still the case under Poundland or not as I don"t go in as often as we now have an Aldi near us were paracetomol are just 19p a pack. I put a prescription in to my local chemist a couple of weeks ago and my husband collected it the following day and was told by the chemist they can deliver. No I am not housebound thankfully and the only reason it was,nt collected the same day is that they had a very long queue and I could manage until the next day and the chemist is only a 10 minute walk away. I try and deal with minor medical problems with over the counter remedies. Our pharmacist is very helpful as well so that is a big help. It takes 4 weeks at our surgery to book a non urgent appointment with your named GP, or a phone back from the surgery for an urgent appointment to find out if you actually need to see a GP or can just be left a prescription at reception. There is so much money wasted in various areas of the NHS no wonder we are struggling.

I used to get paracetamol on prescription, but decided to buy them myself when I found out how cheap they are in some shops. It's disgraceful that they are still on prescription costing over £8.

I have paracetamol on my repeat prescription but NEVER have it dispensed. It's there because I travel to and through Gulf airports. I keep a copy of the prescription in my passport so the authorities can see that it's been prescribed for me although I will be carrying the much cheaper supermarket paracetamol.
There have been reported cases of travellers being questioned about carrying 'drugs'. Better safe than sorry......

Run a car (road tax, insurance, petrol) and can't afford 10-20p a day on supermarket paracetamol

Re constipation - I'd say give it a couple of days to a week. Yes, it can be something serious but more often it's bad diet.

The trouble is, if you don't have it dispensed it may be removed from your repeat prescription when it is reviewed. That happened to me recently with a cream that I hadn't asked for for a long time. Instead of having my monthly prescription automatically dispensed I always ask to see the repeat and just tick off the items I need. We used to have a poster in the surgery asking people to only request items they really needed but I doubt if it did any good. The amount of medication that people brought in for disposal was staggering; some of the drugs being very expensive. I do think something needs to be done about it, but I'm not sure how to resolve it.

There was a case a few years ago [I think it's still the same] where the drug company would only allow Gaviscon to be purchased by the crate. I'll never forget the embarrassment when I ordered what I thought was 10 bottles but I had, in fact, ordered 10 boxes of 10.

Maybe that cost includes the parecetamol given to parents for children with fevers and after immunisation when it can prevent complications. They don't pay prescription charges.

paddyann Mon 03-Jul-17 13:33:00 That is bloody disgusting!

I have been there done that and had the surgery. Everyone's herniated disc is 'different'. I could hardly move but for knife pain going up my back. It started as sciatic pain in legs... that was sort of tolerable, but the back-knife-stabs? They came on after about a month and I was paralysed and bed-ridden till surgery.

My doctor was very generous with painkillers, but I rejected the Tramadol, made me too stupid to work on my computer for a living. But with proper prescriptions, I could recline on the sofa with a memory foam piece under me to soften the pressure. I did this for two months, then had the surgery.

It just wasn't a disc in the end, the nerve had glued itself to the protruding disc and the surgeon had to scrape if off like chewing gum. The operation only cured me about 80-90% as he only worked at L5 and S1.

I still take painkillers, but alternate. I have plain codeine tablets which I use up to 3 days a week in the morning. Daily I have to take naproxen. To not use so much codeine (constipation city), I chose to have pregabalin for night time so I can sleep without taking valium... which his only used if in a total spasm. I have not become dependent and I alternate meds regularly and try to have one to two weeks med free, except for the naproxen.

Pain is real...GPs need to be educated. You have to tell them how debilitating the pain is, not just that it hurts. If you cannot walk or drive or pick anything up that weighs over 2 kilos, that is serious debilitating pain that stops you from working or normal daily activities. You have a right to a life. Hope things get solved soon!

I am glad this issue is being raised as it highlights that just throwing extra money at the NHS is not the answer. Much money is wasted and much is spent on 'treatments' that many taxpayers and users of the service would find unacceptable.

Also, about MRIs... if you can afford the £250 +- fee, there are MRI charities, like this one www.cobalthealth.co.uk/

I had mine there as recommended by the GP instead of waiting on the NHS. Once the scan came back, I could get surgery scheduled.
Mind you... my bulge was small...it was the nerve embedding that caused all the pain. I had had this for a very long time.

I got an email today telling me the list of drugs etc. that my LHA would no longer supply on prescription. All seemed very reasonable. And yes, I am a pensioner, and it does mean I'll have to pay for a few things I'd been getting for free.

I am not sure exactly how it works now but Dispensing GPs and presumably pharmacists used to send off all dispensed prescriptions monthly to the Prescription Pricing Authority plus monies paid to them for prescriptions. They are then paid a fee per item dispensed plus cost of drugs from this Body.

This is a hangover from the early days of the NHS. Then everything was free so many 'patients' asked for and got scrips covering all the less costly items as well as the drugs. Even when scrips had to be paid for they carried on seemingly oblivious to buying themselves at less than the cost of the scrip. Some people will always seek to get everything free regardless of the circumstances.

magwis; that's why people tend to only get one months supply of medicine. People often used to complain that their previous GP would dispense 2 months supply but we had to point out that, if we did that our income for prescriptions would halve.

There is something called the Minor Ailment Scheme and if your pharmacy is registered for it they can provide basic free medicines including paracetamol to under 16 and over 60. Not many people know about and a lot of those who do abuse it.

When I was younger and paid for prescriptions my GP sometimes told me it would be cheaper (for me) to buy certain items over the counter. I was very grateful.

We would always do that, too. [this thread is making me realise how much I loved my job ....]