Nhs To Ration Drugs Available Over The Counter

[lindapalmara]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5133403/Patients-not-able-painkillers-NHS.html

At last some common sense! I know some on this site will scream "free everything, cradle to grave" but let's do something about the wasteful prescribing. My 97 year ld Mother was prescribed Paracetamol and was very upset that she had been buying these for sometime from Tesco for 19p a pack. The NHS also provided equipment for her to keep her in her home but she was a proud woman and kept telling me she can pay for it, and her own care. After she died it was very difficult to arrange collection for this equipment, which included a hospital vibration bed worth £1,000. I wrot a letter to the local newspaper and they suddenly collected the equipment. I have NHS hearing aids and can obtain batteries free but I buy my own. Every little helps! There is huge waste in the NHS. I went to see Margaret Hodge at a Literature Festival a couple of years ago and she was Chair of the Finance Select Committee (Labour MP) and she railed at the NHS incompetence and waste.

[horselady]

I know Ummm, depending on which shop they range from about 25p to 60p, if I'd had them on prescription it would cost the NHS about £8 (not sure how much prescriptions are now)

[mikey4444]

We here in Wales, don't have to pay for our scrips anymore.

[ummmm]

And the other way. If they are prescribed someone could be £8 out of pocket.

[dave50]

My wife went to the chemist a few weeks ago, she is one of the few who has to pay full price. The chemist had to ask her if she knew the latest price for a prescription because he said so few people pay, he had forgotten. That says it all.

[EDDIE51]

^ over 90% of prescriptions are issued free in England.

[MallyJ]

The prescribed medication that I can't buy over the counter I get fre but the drugs that I can buy over the counter I do. Aspirin for example. Why wouldn't you?

[ummmm]

90% Eddie. Have you got a link to that?

[woofgang]

Mikey the issue with getting paracetamol(and, to a lesser extent, other pain relief) not on prescription is that supermarkets are not allowed, and pharmacists often refuse, to sell them in large quantities. As things stand, the only solutions, apart from having a prescription, are to hike from shop to shop or go and buy more very frequently. Thats why Mamya and I are concerned that there needs to be some kind of mechanism in place to allow the people who need to the freedom to buy what they need at least a month at a time.

[hc4361]

horselady, paracetomol etc on prescription doesn't cost the NHS £8.60 each time, but that is what the prescription paying patient would pay.

Drug costs to the NHS cost anything from pennies to hundreds of pounds, plus the 90p dispensing charge the pharmacist is paid.
For example, in 2015 Eculizumab cost £340,000 per patient to the NHS each year, or around £10 million over the total treatment per patient.

100 paracetamol costs the NHS pennies per prescription.

[hc4361]

ummm, Eddie is correct

"The think tank notes that while 40% of the population are liable to pay the prescription charge, in practice 90.6% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge"

http://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/prescription-charge-overhaul-would-raise-1bn-a-year-for-nhs-says-think-tank/20066348.article

[naomi24]

Good. Too many people go to their GP with minor ailments. I wonder how many prescribed drugs end up discarded?

[ummmm]

Jeez. Getting my prescription drugs last weekend and buying something unrelated off the shelf the assistant didn't charge me for the meds until I pointed it out. I wondered why she said "Oh, you pay"

[douglas9401]

I suppose I'm lucky to live in a country where doctors diagnose health issues and let pharmacist know what to dispense to treat the ailment.

I might struggle if I had to rely on the good offices of Answerbank where the motto might be 'First Do No Harm, Unless Their Illness Is One That Annoys Me Or I Think They Might Be At It'.

That motto might need some work to fit on practicioner certificates of competence.