OT: Superdrug and online prescriptions

Look at Table 2 Top Medicines Class by volume in 2019 in NHS Primary Care. (I did the calc per prescribed item)

1. Lipid reduction = £1.49 cost per prescription
2. Blood Pressure = £2.87
3. Proton Pump = £1.59
4. Antidiabetic = £13.08
5. Depression = £1.64
6. Beta Blockers = £1.72
7. Analgesics = £3.71
8. Antiplatelet = £2.00

Congratulations, you found the outlier. How strange that someone on Usenet would do this. :-)

My three, fairly simple, medications cost the NHS about £62 per year between them. Only one of those, the 75mg aspirin, approaches your estimate.

There is a case, I think, for pharmacists being allowed to prescribe certain medications, but simply making them available on request would almost certainly result in people self-medicating with the wrong things.

Having seen NICE at work when I was a member of a committee of the Association of British Healthcare (now HealthTech) Industries, I think they are too accountancy driven.

As they announce every time they increase prescription charges, "90% of prescriptions will remain free". With only 10% paid for, they could cut the paperwork and the back-room costs of checking who may have wrongly got something free and just make them all free! It amounts to 0.5% of the NHS budget, yet causes a lot of anguish for those that have to pay, but are stretched for money. My wife gets hers on a pre-payment certificate, but it is mad that she pays, as without her meds, her Rheumatoid Arthritis would rapidly worsen, she'd be confined to a wheelchair and need carers and a whole lot of NHS treatment.

So reduce the period as people get to an age where they are more likely to die and give longer periods to those who are likely to live another

when I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, the doctor said I was a "good

Much too simple a solution for NICE.

In my case, I had only just become exempt because the cancer exemption was new (my cancer wasn't). I am no longer being actively treated, so I wouldn't qualify, but I hit 60 not long after!

1. Lipid reduction = £1.49 cost per prescription
2. Blood Pressure = £2.87
3. Proton Pump = £1.59
4. Antidiabetic = £13.08
5. Depression = £1.64
6. Beta Blockers = £1.72
7. Analgesics = £3.71
8. Antiplatelet = £2.00

I gave a list elsewhere in the thread. The top three prescribed: Statins (1), ACE inhibitors (2), and proton pumps are approximately in the range quoted (£2 per prescription).

Lipid reduction and blood pressure meds are life long and yet do not entitle people to free prescriptions. In fact, off the top of my head, of this list of the 8 most prescribed medicines only diabetes entitles the patients to free prescriptions.

People can do stupid things in all type of ways. Only in medicine do we need to be protected from ourselves, and as sure as night follows day this "need" to protect ourselves from ourselves entitles the "protectors" to extort money from us.

Accountancy is good, accountability is good, perpetuating a corrupt system is not good.

Your GP will give you a suitable letter detailing your items. Ours did so for free.

I’ve only been required to supply one when travelling to the USA although I was never actually asked to produce it on entry etc. I think the airline wanted it or the travel agent. One of my items is a controlled item ( for chronic pain) so I carry the letter when in Europe, just in case.

The NHS stopped ‘long term’ prescriptions ( it used to be 3 mths) and cut the limit to 2 mths to save waste. Supposedly. Of course, this means more work for GPs. Some items have always been 1 mth, unless you are travelling etc.

It is 60.

There was talk of it changing to the state pension age but it hasn’t happened, yet.

Quarterly might work for the cheapest drugs but I expect that repeat prescriptions are dealt with by clerical staff unless the prescription is up for review or doctor/practice nurse needs to check the patient.

I think they probably do have a point there based on the large numbers of untaken pills I have had to dispose of when acting as an executor. Once they have left the controlled conditions of the pharmacy they are chemical waste and have to be disposed of correctly.

Way too many are flushed down the loo and show up in waterways :(

One big snag is that not everybody takes all of the pills that they are prescribed and so a surplus builds up. If they aren't paying for them so there is no incentive at all to cancel the ones they almost never take.

I made a comment to my GP perhaps 15 years ago. He responded by telling me the average 50 year old took 17 prescription items.

At 65, I’m well below that, even after a stroke.

What happens if your prescription prepayment certificate is up for renewal but you will become 60 (and therefore qualify for free prescriptions) during the year of its validity? Do you get a pro-rata refund, or do you lose the money for the time between your 60th birthday and the expiry of the new PPC?

I've not found anything online which covers this, only that if you pay in 10 monthly instalments (why 10, rather than 12?) you are committed to pay all the instalments unless you become exempt from paying charges. By extrapolation of that, I presume it applies if you pay up front as well.

Hopefully the rules about exempt from 60 don't change some time before next March, and that if they do ever change in the future they aren't retrospective ie that someone who has already qualified because they reached

I was surprised that when I was prescribed various medications for the rest of my life (*), after having a heart attack and cardiac arrest, I didn't qualify for free prescriptions. At least £108/year for a PPC is cheaper than five items at £9.35, 12 times a year.

(*) I was told by the consultant that the medication was for the rest of my life.

As I said, i've only had a brief look..... Not read the terms etc.....

Cheers, I was sure such a thing existed and had been meaning to look into it.

Are you sure that is per 8 week prescription and not per pack of 28?

Depending upon the make I get at the time, my blood pressure medication costs the NHS between £2.24 and £3.10 per pack of 28. 13*£2.24 = £31.20 per annum.

It is also protecting others. Using antibiotics when they are not required or are of the wrong type is likely to increase the number of drug resistant strains of disease.

Accountancy is not good when cost cutting results in the NHS using cheaper foreign imports that end up killing a patient because of poor quality control, which is something I know happened.

On 07/07/2022 12:29, NY wrote: ...

You don't get a refund. That is something you need to factor in when deciding whether or not to buy a PPC in that year.

The quantisation for PPCs is by the quarter year - 3 months.

I only recall that the potential benefit to me was, at best, marginal, so I never had one and assumed, from the question, that they were valid for a year.