The cost of Prescriptions

I, too, have a prepayment certificate for which I pay just over £10 per month which isn't a lot really for someone working.
I really don't see why anyone who is fit enough to work shouldn't pay for their prescriptions in this manner. It is, however, ludicrous that someone over 60 (or anyone in Scotland it seems) who is earning enough to pay 40% tax gets theirs free.
I suppose the argument would be, as with the free school meals, it costs more to means test such things than it does to simply give out the benefit across the board but I for one would rather some more people were employed, and therefore pay tax and contribute to the economy, and do just that.

I live in Ireland and pay €50 for a doctors appt. My migraine medication was over €50 a month for 6 tablets but I'm having fewer migraines these days so it's more like €50 every 3-4 months. (I used to get 12-18 tablets on prescription from the GP in England when I needed a new prescription). My friend pays the €144 maximum a month every month for prescriptions for her husband and it's a struggle as he's self employed and if he's too unwell, he can't work.
But on the positive side, at least I can get a GP appt. at short notice and they listen properly and never rush you.
My DH was unwell last week and I rang the surgery on Friday afternoon at 12.30pm and got him an appt. for 3.40pm that afternoon. (They close 1-2).
My husband will qualify for free prescriptions and GP appts. etc. from next year due to his age.
I had a hernia op two years ago here in Ireland. My GP referred me to a Consultant and the only fees I paid were for an overnight hospital stay of €85. I didn't pay any fees to see the Consultant.
Three years previously I was living in the U.K. and I was referred to a Consultant but due to budget cuts, I was told I'd only be added to his waiting list if I was suffering severe pain from the hernia or if it became strangulated and therefore, an emergency!
After living here in Ireland for about a year, I mentioned it to my GP (during a routine appt. for my migraine prescription) and he referred me straight away. It hadn't grown and I wasn't suffering any pain from it. The Consultant I saw was shocked that they'd refused to even add me to the waiting list in the UK.
It was through the public health system as we don't have private medical insurance.

Fortunately prescriptions are free in Wales. I feel your pain, not good to pay so much on top of being ill. Take care x

I used to buy a yearly pre-payment certificate. When I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid suddenly everything was free! I never understood why as perhaps only the Levothyroxine should have been free. If people were not taking life-saving drugs because of cost then I can understand why.

I have several items regularly on prescription but because I will need them for the foreseeable future, I get 3 months supply at a time. This would reduce the cost if I had to pay, and reduces paperwork, pharmacy time etc.
Also I had all stoma equipment
free for the year I needed it, when I was 56. I hadn't had cancer but had my colon removed because of ulcerative colitis. I hope it's the same now,as there is a high incidence of inflammatory bowel disease.

The list of conditions which qualify for free prescriptions appears to be very random. Transplant patients do not qualify and they have to take an array of medications daily. There is a petition going around demanding that this should be changed.
www.change.org/p/rt-hon-jeremy-hunt-mp-free-prescriptions-for-transplant-patients?recruiter=474551482&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=stepper_psf&utm_term=share_petition
Nearly up to 10 000 signatures, so if you think this is unjust,
please add yours!

I think the English n.h.s should sort themselves out we in wales also get free prescriptions it seems the smallest countries in the u.k can do it so why not England baffles me.

This thread has already reached FB

Sign up for the yearly prescription 'season ticket' by direct debit -- it is well worth it as long as you have more than one item on prescription per month.
www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/PPC.aspx

At one point in the 90s my husband was prescribed five different drugs while the GP tried to find out what was wrong with him. Even the pharmacist was asking if he needed them all. Fortunately an operation sorted it all out. I think the drugs he is on at the moment would cost £80 or £90 a month if we still had to pay. DS was off sick for some weeks and had to pick the meds he really couldn't do without because he couldn't afford them all on sick pay

Musicelf - When I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid I too got exemptions from paying for all my other medications. I was working at the time and think this is crazy. I should only have had an exemption for the thyroid medication.

IMHO it is also wasteful that people who pay income tax at 40% receive free prescriptions. I know this will not be a popular view.

If these things were changed, more money could go toward helping those who have trouble affording their prescriptions.

It's difficult gillybob - when my late husband had mnd he had to pay - until very late on the GP decided to fill a form in to get prescriptions free. Too little, too late, I'm afraid. It's all right if you're over 60 in England. I can only imagine that you'd have to prioritise which medicines are most important.

Um.....that will be "prescribed" - not prescrived!

I lived in Ireland for a few years and there we would have to pay 50.00 euros to see the doctor and then pay for the prescriptions per item - some months my basic repeat would come to 144.00 euros - one tablet that i was put on cost 98.00 alone. We did have a system whereby you wouldn't pay anymore than 144 in any one month. We also had to pay for every A&E visit, and also for any consultants we seen - and that was with having health health insurance. Coming back to the UK was a breath of fresh air - and very much reassuring

I've needed lots of different medications for many years, and it used to cost me a fortune. Then they discovered my underactive thyroid, and prescrived thyroxine, which meant that all my prescriptions were now free - it's a lifelong condition, which apparently means everything else gets treated the same. I turned 60 not long after, so it was all free then anyway, but if I'd still got to pay, I'd really have to decide which ones were more vitally important than the others. My husband is also on lots for his heart and other conditions, so we do feel a little guilty for costing the NHS such a fortune!

I do feel desperately for people who cannot afford the charges but who do not qualify for help.

I used to pay for the prepayment prescription certificate which worked out to approx £10 per month, it was the most economical option and saved me a lot of money as I have to get about 6 separate repeat meds per month, thankfully at the moment I'm entitled to free prescriptions.

Morgana - Hopefully that means you are getting properly sterile unopened dressings. I'm currently having an open surgical wound on my nose dressed at my GP surgery in Wales and am petrified I will end up with it infected as they are cutting pieces off already opened, partly used dressings!

I signed up to a monthly direct debit for my allergy medication. It spreads the cost and makes it cheaper because no matter what I have its covered. I am 60 in October so start with the freebies. Hubby had bowel cancer in 2008 (survived) but needs stoma equipment. He got it free because of being a cancer patient luckily. There are advantages to being 60. Not many of them worth having but free prescriptions is one.

Roll on 60 then Roxannediane only another 5 years to go! Although like the pensions there's time yet for them to move the goal posts. (67.5 for my pension so far, could change again yet though).

My husband has always needed prescriptions throughout his adult life for several conditions, and had to pay until retirement age.

We didn't mind this, although for some conditions you are allowed free prescriptions. He has over-active thyroid, prescriptions payable, yet people who suffer with underactive thyroid are allowed free medication. Our son (in his forties) has been diagnosed with Glaucoma, and has to pay for eye drops to regulate levels.

Now at retirement age, my husband has been diagnosed with Diebetes Type 2, and luckily we don't have to pay for all the medication.

About the only good thing about turning 60 last year was free prescriptions, not that I have many - one every three months!! No pension until I am 66 and no job after being made redundant.... just an
unpaid (grand)child minder now!!
But I'm not complaining!!!!

If u need to go to doctors to get wounds dressed u have to pay for the dressings!

I completely agree gillybob, I would be really shocked if I had to pay that for medicines I needed. I'm also fortunate in now qualifying for free prescriptions. I hope you'll be able to make good use of the prepayment certificate - be sure to top up with whatever drugs you need before it expires.

Like you, I don't begrudge free precriptions to people in Scotland, but it just feels like another unfairness here (think university tuition charges...)

How unfair is it that in England some people will be afraid to visit their GP or will refuse a prescription due to the cost when just over the border they are free. Don't get me wrong I am happy for my Scottish friends to enjoy free prescriptions but just a bit put out that we English still have to pay such excessive costs. To be fair I don't think i have ever been faced with paying for 4 items at the same time and hopefully won't again. Shelling out £30 that I hadn't expected to is a lot of money.

Like paddy I am very happy that prescriptions are free in Scotland as my DD needs lots of different and expensive med's.
I have statins free as I receive State Pension but always buy paracetamol and ibuprofen otc.
Statistics do show that by-passing all the paperwork offsets the costs and I wonder if this would hold true in the many other areas involving bureaucracy.