I have issue with all of my local pharmacies, one is occasionally closed when you wouldn't expect, one is difficult to park anywhere near and another i'm currently trying is pissing me off in a number of ways.
Looking on Superdrug's website it would appear you can get medication in
Often though, your surgery will not issue supplies for that long unless you are going out of the country, and then of course you have to disclose any drugs in advance that you might be carrying. Brian
Surely you can only get the amount that doctor prescribes and oat the timescale he permits. I can only have repeat NHS prescriptions every two months. They can be ordered one month in advance but then there is a block for another 6 to 8 weeks. There is also a block in ordering when a review of the drugs is required and an appointment may have to be made to talk to the doctor or routine tests carried out.
Depending on the number of prescriptions that you have it may be worth obtaining a prescription prepayment certificate. In England it costs £108 a year and covers all of your pharmacy prescription charges irrespective of the number of prescriptions per year.
R D S was thinking very hard :
As others point out, you can only get prescription drugs for the following eight weeks, but assuming they are none prescription, take a look at Simplepharmacy, for home delivery.
Assuming NHS prescriptions the website and FAQ shows no difference in the way they operate than my local pharmacy - except for delivery by post.
They only supply to a valid prescription (which will detail the amount of drugs).
I can see nothing on their web site about supplying in 6 month batches. In fact they suggest that certain drugs (in certain packaging of their own) can only be supplied if you have a monthly prescription.
Do you have a web page URL where thay stae 6 months supply?
I was getting my prescriptions from the local Boots, but I moved to the Boots online service, which delivers the stuff to me.
It's a surprisingly slick operation.
I get three months' supply each time, but I think my surgery has changed that policy and I only get it as a grandfather right.
Yes, I got one of those. Four months in, I had a letter from my doctor telling me that new rules meant that I (as a cancer patient) would get exemption.
I even got a pro-rata refund!
There are lots of exemptions. I was exempt because I was prescribed levothyroxine for hypothyroidism, it mean *all* my prescriptions from then on were free. As I understand it almost anything that means you have a repeat prescription required 'for the rest of your life' will give you free prescriptions. Also of course prescriptions become free when you're an OAP (or when you're 65, or something like that).
This isn't true. Many online doctors will give 6 month private prescriptions, nothing to do with an NHS prescription. I believe Superdrug offer this service.
Given many of the most popular prescription drugs only cost a fifth of the NHS prescription charge, there is clearly a business opportunity offering this service online, for the same price as an NHS prescription.
Before I reached the age threshold, I was under the impression that I was in a minority in having to pay prescription charges.
The system is totally arbitrary and unfair. The list of conditions for which you do get free prescriptions is historical, archaic. There is now no sensible rationale.
Apologists for the system claim that because many get free prescriptions, it is OK to overcharge those who do not. Because it is the wonderful NHS, the MSM brush it under the counter. Apparently it is terrible women are charged VAT on sanitary products, but OK to tax hypertension medicines 400%, medicines which cost ~£2 for 8-weeks, a fifth of the prescription fee.
To add to the insult, GPs have to spend admin time organising 8 weekly prescriptions when for many medications it would be far more efficient to do so annually, or just make them over the counter.
I'm on a repeat prescription (blood pressure). And can only get two months supply at once - even although it is 'free' to me. However, I can order via Patient Access three working days before I need it and pick up at my designated chemist. Be silly to order a long way in advance as they look up a paper copy of the prescription when collecting. There would be a lot more to look through with 4 weeks worth.
On 06/07/2022 13:48, Pancho wrote: ...
NICE worked out that longer periods would waste too many drugs, based upon the number of people who would die before the prescriptions were used up.
I'm not surprised mixing with us lot.
Bill
Look at the cost price of the most frequently described drugs, mainly they are in the region of £12 a year.
So if we let patients buy a year's worth at £12. What is the cost to the NHS if they die, midyear. Do we worry about unused packs of paracetamol or Rennie? Compare that to the cost of the bureaucracy of GPs and pharmacists issuing 6 prescriptions per year instead of one, or none.
Mainly, I would just like common medicines to be OTC. Expensive or problematic ones can remain prescription.
When requesting an repeat prescription online it says I can pick it up at my designated pharmacy 3 working days later. Recently I've had to wait 8 working days because the pharmacy has not got the stock and delivery of said stock is weekly.
When I order in advance I collect it soon afterwards - I don't wait a month after ordering. I usually do this before (lenghty) holidays so I don't run out when away.
One advantage of ordering online myself, rather than letting the pharmacy do it, is that I immediately can see if the repeat request has been blocked due to a review or test being required.
I was on a three month regime until I had to change one of the drugs. This change triggered everything else being on a two month regime.
Years back I did find a site where they listed the UK wholesale price for some of the common prescription drugs. I have prescriptions for type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. I didn't find the cost for the drugs (and quantity of the drugs I was prescribed) was less than the prescription charges at the time. i was exempt from prescription charges so it was just an exercise in seeing how much I was costing the NHS.
Today just searching some UK sites offering private prescription drugs showed that the most common tablet prescribed for type 2 diabetes was around £30 for 2 months supply (typical maximum dose). If I was paying for prescription that would have been £10.
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