Prescription charges

night anno

Paracetamol is paracetamol -no difference between generic and brand names - except price - check the patients information sheet

No need to be abusive maryeliza, a sure sign your argument on its last legs.
Read some of the other posts about buying a couple of packets every time you go shopping and having adequate supplies stockpiled. Unless you live miles and miles from even a village shop this is a perfectly easy solution. It is even possible to go into more than one shop on your high street and buy your two packets in each, has that never occurred to you.
And not preach to me about chronic illness and genuine drug dependence. After 21years of Paw’s lengthy list of repeat meds of 12 different pills twice or thrice a day including anti- rejection drugs, I do have some experience!

Maw I know about your personal experiences - that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to equate savlon with
Paracetemol needed for chronic pain. Rather than coming up with ideas about how people can keep their stocks up, why not instead have a system where such people could buy a months supply at a time? There is also the point that cornergran brought up that such people should be being monitored by their GPs and their paracetemol use should be in their medical records. I think it’s sheer nonsense to conflate the 8 a day people with the occasional user and we shouldn’t think that just because a drug is OTC it’s safe - if it were, why is there NHS guidance about restricting the amount to be sold at any one time?

And of course I know people can traipse from one shop to the next buying their paracetemol - but why should they? Why why why?

I think Bathsheba’s point was the best yet, a card allowing a similar purchase to the amount a Dr prescribes seems an easy compromise.

Maryeliza and Bathsheba have the same idea and it’s one that my clients and I have discussed.
You are all quite right it is not an insurmountable problem for most people but it will be for some. So a card for a repeat proscription that has to be paid for seems quite a simple solution.

To digress slightly, my GP has told me to take paracetamol on a regular basis but so far I have resisted until I really need to go out or the pain beats me.
My question is, is it really ok long-term and does it do any harm? She also suggested ibuprofen but no more than 2 weeks and then I must notify her.

They seem to be the latest guidelines, following the latest protocol, annsixty as I have been told the same.

No doubt this will all change again in about 2 years' time when new protocols have been written.

Poppyred I think if someone went to the GP with an ache or a pain which was not due to a chronic condition it would be fair enough for the patient to be told to go to the chemist and buy some paracetamol over the counter.

However, if the patient has a chronic condition and paracetamol is the drug of choice recommended by the GP at a rate of 8 per day every day for a chronic condition which makes mobility difficult I can see no reason why a prescription cannot be issued for a much larger number of tablets. The prescription could be paid for - and the patient would not have to trek to the shops or send someone to buy 32 at a time (4 days' supply) - and be questioned every time they are purchased.

Surely it should be up to the judgement of the GP?
Mine refuses to prescribe Naproxen which is much more effective for me - but the chemist in Boots (not in our town) said that she deals with many prescriptions for Naproxen.

I once got told I couldn't have more than 32 paracetamol in Tesco. I bought three separate lots of 32, same till, same checkout assistant. Just had to queue three times.
Very silly......

We have a pharmacy counter in our Sainsbury branch. I can buy 32 there, and buy another 32 at the till. If my DH is with me, we both do it, so can manage to buy 128 in one trip. Crazy!

My friends husband was dying of cancer. The only drug he could tolerate was paracetamol. My friend was leaving him alone at home in order to go out to buy paracetamol every couple of days, so I told her to ask for it on prescription. ‘But it’s so cheap, doesn’t seem right’ she said. I argued successfully with her that paracetamol is on prescription for people like her husband, and she managed to get it prescribed in much larger amounts, so she didn’t need to keep running out to get it. Sadly her husband died a few weeks later.

On the other hand, my 90 year old mother gets paracetamol on prescription. She rarely uses it as she has cocodamol instead. ‘But why pay when you can get it free’ she says. Despite her great age, my love for her, and her other costly and very necessary drugs, I don’t think a prescription for paracetamol is justified in her case. She doesn’t agree.

My mother goes independently to the supermarket, and could easily pick up some paracetamol if she wanted it.

Why on earth can't we leave it to the GPs to decide what is appropriate to be given on prescription and what is appropriate to tell the patient to get there own at the pharmacist? Are GPs such wimps they can't stand up to people who come in demanding things they don't really need the NHS to pay for?

Does anyone know the cost of a prescription? I mean simply how much does it cost the NHS on top of the actual medication supplied.

The simple answer is £1.29 per item dispensed but there are higher payments for dispensing appliances, methadone, unlicensed drugs etc etc.

I’m never quite sure if the gp’s practice benefit financially from proscribing cheap drugs. I get my drugs from the surgery dispensary and our practice also has a pharmacy.
Anyone know?

If your surgery is a dispensing practice then one of the ways it benefits is by giving you a prescription for say only a month rather than two months supply. As for prescribing cheaper drugs my understanding is that pharmacies only get reimbursed for the the list price of the drug prescribed. However CCGs keep a very close eye on prescribing patterns and also may say which drugs can only be generic etc

I thought the reason paracetamol can only be bought in such small amounts, was because a politicians daughter's friend committed suicide using them. He campaigned to have the law changed.
I am quite prepared to be corrected though.

Oh come on! Where there’s a will there’s a way.

And to be frank I’m not impressed by someone who simply comes up with name calling and excuses as to why something easily organised isn’t possible for them.

If someone has the wherewithal to spend all day arguing on a forum like this, with an internet connection then they ought to be able to organise a simple delivery.

I am afraid that it is not aways a simple matter. I have to use Paracetemol as part of a raft of medication to try to keep on top of pain and I absolutely have to have it on prescription as I am so intolerant of the ingredient that the OTC stuff is generally coated in. It causes nausea, vomiting, diahroea, severe pain and internal bleeding. I cannot manage my life very well if I have to contend with that so I would rather take the prescription and use the dearer product which is mercifully prescribed by my GP. Fortunately I am given a supply for a month at a time. I would also find it too difficult to get medication every few days because it sometimes takes a few days to recover from a trip to the chemist.

I get paracetamol on prescription because I take 8 a day and have significant mobility problems - hence the need for taking them! I can only get enough for four days if I buy them so was faced with frequent trips to a chemist, each one causing me severe pain. I would be happy to pay for them if I could buy large packs. I hope that I can still get them prescribed under the exemption guidance ie chronic illnesses.

I think a card allowing those who need regular doses of paracetamol is an excellent idea. Paracetamol can be dangerous and patients should be monitored regularly. I think because it is so readily available people forget that it is dangerous if not taken properly. Ibuprofen can cause stomach problems and because of possible addiction and other side effects, any drug containing co codsmol had to be purchased on prescription over here. A previous poster asked why thyroxine was free, probably because there are some patients without any remaining thyroid that need this drug to stay alive. If your body can’t profuce any thyroxine, your body will slowly shut down and you die. There are all manner of serious effects on the body without enough thyroxine before you get to that stage. I think it would also be very cost effective if the NHS could run out a service promoting good health and well being that would hopefully reduce the populations need for medications and medical treatments. Pain can be a dreadful affliction that robs people of a good quality of life. Chronic pain is a serious condition in itself, apart from what is causing it. The difference to people’s lives when their pain is controlled is amazing.

I wasn’t questioning why thyroxine was free - I was trying to make the point that it was extremely unfair of some posters to accept that for example medications like thyroxine are free but they were suggesting that people in chronic pain should not only have to pay for their medication that but they also think it is absolutely fine that people needing 200+ tablets a day should make arrangements to sort that out themselves. I absolutely agree with you that monitoring is essential with such heavy use and the best way to do that is by people having it on prescription.