living part year out of country

[saintpeter48]

Any help would be appreciated. A friend and his wife live out of the country for half the year, both retired, they still own their home here and rent some properties out as well, he needs regular medication and can't seem to be able to get from his own doctor more than one months supply at a time meaning he has to pay abroad for tablets. Is there anyone who knows if there is a scheme here that will allow him to get say 6 months supply. Thankyou.

[dundurn]

May vary from paractice to practice and patient to patient. My wife takes a heart medication and her doctor has no problem with prescribing a multi-month supply. She goes in for a check up three or four times a year. On the other hand my father has pills for a couple of problems and they potentailly interact. His GP needs to test him regularly to gauge what dosages to prescribe. In those circumstances it would be irresponsible of a GP to offer more than an immediate supply.

[bednobs]

No, if the gp wont prescribe for more than a month he will have to pay abroad for his medication. When they are living abroad they are not entitled to be registered with a gp in the UK anyway, althugh when they are living hre they are

[bednobs]

taken from a post in B&S:

Taken from BMA site:

I live abroad for six months of the year and asked my doctor to give me six months worth of prescription to cover this period but they refused. Can this be right?
The NHS accepts responsibility for supplying ongoing medication for temporary periods abroad of up to 3 months. If a person is going to be abroad for more than three months then all that the patient is entitled to at NHS expense is a sufficient supply of his/her regular medication to get to the destination and find an alternative supply of that medication.

[Narolines]

I spend half the year in the UK and the other half in Cyprus, and I never have any problem with my UK GP prescribing enough of my blood-pressure medication in one go. It will, of course, vary from practice to practice and probably also depend on the nature of the medication involved.

[bubbles4920]

cant someone collect a 'repeat' prescription for him in the uk and then post tablets on, if its a 3 months max then surely a repeat one once only would be ok?