Urmstongran
The price of prescriptions! I’m exempt now of course but I think they’re £8-odd now. I remember in (? 1972) the introduction of a charge. It was 20p.
Prescriptions can be a rip off. As you say, nowadays they are over £8, but when your doctor prescribes your treatment you are not given a choice, you have to pay the prescription charge. By choice I mean paying over the counter for the same treatment.
Some ailments are treated with drugs that are not available to buy retail, but many are. Take a popular prescribed medication like Hydrocortisone skin creams. You can buy that for £4:50, but if it's prescribed, you pay the prescription charge.
You might argue that it's swings and roundabouts, it definitely isn't, a good deal of money is made out of prescription drugs, I just hope that it finds it's way into the NHS coffers, but cynic that I am, I'm more inclined to think that it's the pharmaceutical companies that make the most out of it.