Vitamin D stopped

I agree with Matron too. I am a retired GP.
Whether you claim say aspirin on your script or not ,it needs to be listed so everyone knows you are on it and can consider interactions/ side effects etc.

I'm open to being proven incorrect, Matron - No need to list 100 - 5 would suffice -

I don’t agree with you rosecarmel a lot of over the counter meds are the same as those prescribed. I’m an advanced nurse prescriber and I could list probably a hundred otc drugs which are exactly the same.

I refuse to see a locum GP purely because they don’t know me and I always find they try and change my medication. I’m lucky because my GP surgery rarely have locums but if one of them tried to stop my HRT heaven help them!

Nothing "prescribed" by a doctor is available over the counter -- nothing - Different producers, different ingredients, different monitoring of quality, different strengths - Prescribed drugs vs over the counter drugs: they are not at all identical -

I think there has been a recent change in which prescriptions GP's are now allowed to prescribe. I take vit D3, B6 and B12 which I get from H&B. They do different strengths.

I am fed up with people preaching to us to buy it from the chemist. Some of us have life treating conditions that are painful and we don't absorb vitamins. The ones bought in the chemist are totally different from the ones prescribed, as my doctor told me. So I feel perfectly justified in having my vitamins freely prescribed. Also when I needed vast amounts of paracetamol I was prescribed them. Now I have to take a stronger painkiller which you can't buy over the counter. If we are talking about people helping themselves more, and saving NHS money well the lets talk about smokers who harm themselves with their lifestyles etc. Rant over.

The CCGs are insisting that anything available OTC should be bought and not included on a prescription. But that in itself can be a hazard, if you are told to buy aspirin, and it is not in your listed medications, then it could interact with other medication and the doctor prescribing the new drug, or preparing you for surgery, would be unaware.

Locums are a major part of the NHS, adequately trained, and with any luck they will have read your notes before you come in, so a bit unfair to think they are useless and refusing to take their advice. Having said that, if you disagree with their advice, you are perfectly entitled to a second opinion.

@FlexibleFriend, if you require aspirin, your doctor could be criticised for not including it on your prescription. It's your decision whether to claim it, and I think you made a good choice.

I take morphine for pain and that's only available on prescription as is the clexane I inject so obviously they have to be prescribed. Doctors should not be prescribing anything freely available without a prescription. Call it what you like it's wasting the nhs funds.

The vitamins prescribed by a doctor are usually a different strength to those bought over the counter, therefore are prescription only. If a doctor thinks it's ok to have a lower strength fair enough go out and buy them.

*There's certainly a lot of virtue-signalling on here - do those posters really see people who use prescriptions for supps/painkillers as freeloaders?

Yes, the PPG was a box tick. I chaired one, at the request of my GP. It was required, box ticked. Happy to help. We didn't try to interfere.

This thread rings more of politics than it does prescription drugs - What exactly is sacrificing what a doctor prescribes going to accomplish?

There's as much information on Amazon as anywhere else and most people only buy brands they know and trust.

Doctors prescribe all sorts without thinking about the cost my GP prescribed Aspirin but it's so cheap to buy I kept telling him not to bother but his attitude was you have to take it so I'm prescribing it. I just crossed it off the prescription and bought them foe something like 30p.

Does anyone who buys their vitamins on Amazon know where those vitamins are made? What all they contain and where those ingredients were sourced from and or closely monitored for quality and or contaminants?

I didnt ask my Dr for Vit D,but i would still prefer to see him before going off it, it is Vit D3 i buy other vitamins myself, but i reckon he must have had a reason for prescribing a higher dose
I have a blood condition so have to have regular blood tests,and a pint of blood taken every so often,if my ferritin gets too high
As it happens i still have some which will last me until i see him, he was off for 12 weeks, but could be back soon, not sure from when he was not at the surgery
I just dont want young locum Drs telling me what i can and cant have,i am sure my own Dr wont have said to stop them, also i am on livial [Tibilone] was thinking of going off them anyway, but would still rather see my own Dr
My sister was also on VitD3 and her new Dr said they had been told to stop prescribing due to cost
As far as i know most older people especially are short of VitD in this country
If i can get the same strength and my Dr agrees i dont mind buying them

i buy my own iron tablets for 99p. its saves the NHS spending out £7.50p or whatever it is for a prescription...i was HRT for 5 years , then advised to take them no more as i could get breast cancer......i find locums interesting as they have a different view , and its solved a lot of my health problems.

The NHS is struggling so the Doctors have to cut don on prescribing things that people can buy in the supermarket or chemist,paracetamol is really cheap in supermarkets & so are vitamin tablets.I think we all have to realise that we can’t get everything free on prescription.There is no way the NHS can survive if we want everything free.Its different for people who have special health problems but on a whole I think we should all pay for paracetamol ,vitamins & sundries.

. . .marydoll . . . if you lay naked in Dubai you probably wouldn't be getting any vit D . . . . you'd be locked up!! lol

Vit D shouldn't be necessary and can harm the kidneys, like many of the vitamin pills do, so I wouldn't worry about not taking any. Oily fish is better for you.
There should be enough in the food you eat as well as being outdoors whether the sun shines or not.

I used to buy jars of malt and cod-liver oil during the winter months, but stopped it since taking warfarin as it interferes with the dosage.

I agree that Vit pills should not be on prescription .... my daughter has extremely bad and chronic asthma since the age of 3..... she sometimes has difficulty paying for her prescriptions as on low wage. To be given something unnecessary that a normal diet and life could supply is awful. I sometimes have to step in and pay for her medication , as I know she’s just squandering her wages on food and rent.

I am on a large number of medications prescribed by the doctor (as a diabetic) as well as taking supplements which I buy. I'm on a low income so I feel no guilt for getting anything on prescription if the doctor thinks it necessary but last time I had a check up I refused to have an additional prescribed medication as there was a risk of having a hypo if my dose was increased. I didn't want to risk that as I need to drive every day. My doctor discusses my medications and lets me decide some of it after making suggestions. I buy vitamin D3 over the counter and it is a vastly smaller dose that that mentioned by the OP which I suspect needs to be prescribed.

No Gabriela54 you are talking a load of rubbish. I am outside nearly all the time and in SE Asia for 3 or 4 months in the winter so you would think that I would absorb vit D but I don't. Some people like myself, have auto immune problems and therefore for one reason or another don't absorb various vits. I have iron tablets, folic acid and vit D all of which are a higher strength than the ones you can buy. Suggest you think a bit before going into action.

A lot of folk seem to confuse daylight with sunshine. Even in the winter 15 mins outside in daylight helps with vit D absorption. Best is through diet though. There is a thought that since we in the UK stopped eating herring as a mainstay in our diet Vit D deficiency and MS have increased.