Persription con

mellman01

As of today perscription charges are free everywhere but England, now is it me or is this Serious discrimination or is it just me?, I mean it's a bit off seeming we have had a 20p rise here today. Hye it's not an Paril fool is it!!!??.

katknapp

i know i was outraged when i got my tablets today and had to pay more!i know scotland get them free,do wales?

perhaps we should hire a mini bus once a month go up to scotland and get our tablets from there!!!!i pay must nearly £60 a month!

valval

i get prepayment card got it before it went up saves me loads of money val

katknapp

i think we should start a petition!!!lets storm downing street!!

valval

can we do it on my day of please then i can come shall we all wear pink for ac then we will know each other (we know what tony looks like so we can all find him)

barbara12

well you can count me in....talk about dividing a country.....Scotland and now Wales get free prescriptions....good for them I say....but surely they dont think they will get away with charging us for much longer...
Barbarax

dreamdaisy

Yes indeed, the Welsh and the Scots enjoy free meds, as does a large percentage of the English. Unluckily for us our affliction is not classed as one deserving exemption - unlike diabetes or epilepsy. If you are unlucky enough to have either or both of those conditions then all your meds are free, not just the ones for that condition. That's unjust.

If drugs have to be paid for (and I suppose they do, they are expensive things and the charge of £7.40 per item bears no relation to the real cost of some of them) then surely it would be fairer to have flat rate fee of £2 that everyone pays, regardless of age or affliction. For those who require vast quantities of meds still have the prepayment (that is a very useful way of spreading the cost) option available, again at a reduced rate, but if everyone had to pay then I suspect a fair amount of drugs wastage would come to an end.

I beleive I read somewhere that charges were introduced to help pay for the war. I must check that. DD

lupin15

Must admit i fall into a group that does not pay for meds either. Any dugs to do with cancer/treatment or conditions caused by treatment are free. When i asked the doctor about this...( i was a little confused as i thought only the meds for cancer were free. ) He explained that my arthur was brought on early by the treatment i had which has extended my life, asthma is from the chemio which killed the cancer, thinning of the bones is also a side effect of treatment. So if i get a chest infection...my chest is weak and does not work properly because of the treatment/asthma therefore free. Confused... . So basically anything i get can be put down to the cancer...whoopie free prescriptions not complaining. Not totally sure it is right !!!!

dreamdaisy

Rest easy lupin, the rest of us are paying so you can have free meds, that's the joy of the current system and there are more winners than losers. It is a flawed system - you are not charged for your asthma meds because your asthma resulted from chemo, but those of us who have asthma, simply because that was the throw of our genetic dice, are (but only if we fall into the wrong group). I think everyone should pay something, it's far fairer - after all we only fall ill because we are alive, but as the concepts and realisation of fairness and equality are beyond the scope of mankind, it will never happen. DD

lupin15

It is an unfair system i must admit and it only changed for me last April because the changed regulations about it. I am not sure how it came about but i am assuming there must have been some debate about...I am sure if one group can get meds free there is no reason why a campaign can not be started for people with arthur... Any takers????? There has to be some way the fight can be started to change this....How many people are on this site for a start?? Could a petition be started up on this site? Then forwarded on to the minster for health...Andrew Lansley CBE MP. Or start up a page where people can add their name to a petition. I know there is the issue of information etc but i am sure there would be someone on this site that could set one up??? Would be interested to get feedback on this..




I would like to point out dreamdaisy that i was paying out for all my drugs before the system changed so i do understand where you are coming from. You are not paying for my drugs my national insurance that i pay into and still do is paying. It is a very unfair system but only people standing together and fighting for change will get things altered. May not happen over night...but i am sure people here are up for a challenge.

tillytop

I'm with DD - if, quoted on tv on Friday, it's right that only 10% of people in the UK pay for their prescriptions, presumably that covers the costs. So, if everybody paid something, obviously it would be a much lower amount and the NHS would still get their money rather than a small amount of people footing the whole bill. I agree too that this would address some of the wastage.

Don't suppose anything will change though. :roll: :roll:

Tilly xxx

margareth64

Hi Everyone just to let you all know , I live in Northern Ireland and we get free prescriptions but heres the down side we get less now there free!!! I used to get boxes/bottles of 100 co-codamol or anything else, now its 60 at the most!!! So we are constantly running back and forward more!! Also some times when i ask for Ibrophen tabs or gel I get a note left saying it can be bought over the counter!!! So we dont get everything free anymore!!! :roll:

lupin15

rehab44 wrote:

the argument seems to be that everyone should pay! Even if it's just a little, will this not turn out to be just another tax that can be siphoned off to pay for something else? How would it work, similar to the present system of an amount per item or a one off payment for all the drugs you receive that day?

Would this not cause inequalities in the system, i.e someone paying for example £1 per item but needs 8 different medications versus another person only requiring 1 item for their condition?

To be honest i am not sure how it would work.... someone would dip out for sure. Maybe we should just be charged for items you can buy cheaply over the counter anything else free??? How about everyone free prescription or a one off fee a year (£12.00 a year for everyone)with no limit to the quantity of drugs. The only problem with that would be would you have exceptions like children under 18 or in full time education???? or free for over 65 's???? No easy solution is there...

dreamdaisy

That's a fair point about the NI lupin, I suppose a very small part of that payment does go towards propping the NHS, so in effect that means that I am paying two lots of money for my meds, one via NI and one via the prepayment certificate. DD