OT New tax coming.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not so much the "nearest phramacy". What is more important is pharmacy that can get the drugs you require. There are two in the town one part of the Surgery/Cottage Hospital and one chemist type. Niether the surgerys or town phramacy can get what I need.

The manufacturer/distributer/wholesaler drugs market seems to be rather restrictive or sown up. There is only one authorised wholesaler for the drug I need and even the "emergency access" that normally goes direct to the manufacturer/distributer is pointed back to that single wholesaler...

The nearest phramacy that should be able to get it on a regular basis is

20+ miles away.

[Dave Liquorice]

Too right they will it's a huge amount of money.

No just make those with electric vehicles be on a lecky tarrif that charges all electricty consumed at say =A31/unit.

[polygonum]

But they'll be charging overnight from their solar cells.

[Tim Streater]

Why can't any pharmacy get any drug? Or surgery that prescribes, come to that.

[polygonum]

Some pharmacies do not have accounts with some suppliers.

One example is the specialist importer Idis - who can get hold of a very wide range of medicines from around the world - to be supplied on a named patient basis as they do not have marketing authorisation. But they will only supply to pharmacies who sign up for an account. (I think that might be a trivial thing for a small independent but might be more onerous for a chain.)

[RJH]

That's rubbish AFAIK. The (teacher and LG) pension funds I've paid into are not ringfenced. On their own they'd have been completely sustainable. It's the fact that government has been 'allowed' to dip in that has caused my contributions to rise and pension to fall (when and if I get the flipping thing).

Rob

[dennis]

So which bank accounts and/or assest contain this fund? A hint: there aren't any assets

A proper pension fund is a fund with assets that can pay the pension even if there are no member contributions.

So if the public workers go on strike and don't pay in who do you think has to pay the pensioners? Yes, the poor old tax payer.

There is no fund despite what the unions want you to think.

[Dave Liquorice]

Because there are a number of wholesalers but not all wholesalers carry =

all drugs. Then the individual pharmacy needs an account with the wholesaler. Remember the "track 'n trace" on drugs is quite tight.

In this case it was a hospital prescription but it is a drug I will be o= n for the foreseeable future. My condition will change for the worse, it's= not going to get better, but how long that takes before a change of drug= is required is unknown, anything from next year to 20 years...

Thanks for that little tit bit. I shall pass it on to the local pharmacies, though I'm sure they would already be aware. The other snag =

might be the cost, how is the cost sorted out between the NHS, pharmacy =

and supplier. Does the pharmacy have to cough up and claim back from the= NHS? The stuff I'm on was =A370+ for 28 tablets in 2005.

[Dave Liquorice]

Doh! How silly I'd forgotten that. Those diesel powered solar cells like= they have in Spain.

[dennis]

8<

I wouldn't call that expensive. (Doing stuff for the Bham childrens hospital I know how much some of the stuff they prescribe costs.)

[harry]

When you get those things at all.

[harry]

There are plenty of places that distance from a local shop. Many are closing down too.

[Tim Streater]

Thongs? So *that's* where it goes.

Actually it still seems to me that the dopiest part of all this is companies, such as say BT or Vauxhall or anyone, running their *own* pension pots. Hardly their core business, is it? This should be forbidden by law - pension schemes should *only* be available via pension companies. That way at least as people move from job to job they don'e end up with a trail of small pensions worth tuppence-halfpenny each.

[dennis]

That would be why you can transfer your pension pot to other providers. However if you were in a good scheam you may not want to take the "cash value" and move it as you may get less back.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually it is in town that they are much more expensive to provide.

Because they all require transport and infrastructure to connect them to the countryside where

- all the electricity is generated

- all the water falls as rain

- all the shit ends up being dumped as fertiliser

- all the refuse is burnt or buried

- all et food is grown

Now if the countryside charged the towns for all of this, it would be a fine thing indeed.

Instead the NIMBY town dwellers pas laws to rape yet more of the countryside to support their useless unproductive lifestyles.

Towns like Bradford simply have no purpose anymore. They should be demolilshed

[tim.....]

Which means what?

Does it mean that there is a pot of money somewhere that is being invested to pay out the pension.

or that all pensions paid out today are covered by today's contributions by current workers?

ITYF it's the latter.

tim

[tim.....]

The problem with that is that under the current system companies are legally required to fund any short-fall.

It wouldn't be reasonable to expect them to do that if someone else were taking the investment decisions

tim

[tim.....]

ITYF that, as an example, it is not cheaper (per person) to supply water to a village of 10 people instead of a town of 100,000 just because the village is next to the place where the water is collected

tim

[Tim Streater]

Which company? The company I work for? No wonder they've all been shutting their final salary schemes then (and a good thing too). And no wonder some of them have been going bust as a result of short-fall in their pensions schemes.

They shouldn't be involved. If I choose to put say 7% of my salary in a pension scheme, and my employer agrees to match that (as an incentive to work for *them*, rather than Joe Soap & Co down the road), that should be the end of their involvement. Just as there should be no such thing as "public sector pensions".

[polygonum]

You can sign up to British National Formulary (free registration is required) and see the notional NHS cost for most regular medicines:

Quite how the payments are handled, I really do not know. I wish I did! If you do know - please post.

There are many on-line pharmacies these days - so a considerable proportion of prescriptions could drop through letter-boxes, if desired.