Prescription charges for HRT

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Comments

  • Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

    Dunno  Doesn't it depend on the inducements being offered by the drug reps ?

    Excellent point.
    When I was based in a GP surgery, our doctors wouldn't see reps, but I know lots do.

  • I'd like it to be free but I can understand that as I can afford to pay I'll have to pay. I'm really just querying why I have to pay 2 prescriptions for one course of treatment. As I understand it I have to have take Oestrogen and Progesterone for 2 weeks out of 4 because I have to have periods to cut the risk of endometrial cancer. I don't really understand why having 2 different sorts of pills which come on the SAME blister pack mean it counts as 2 prescriptions.

    I've only just started HRT so maybe when we've agreed on what treatment is going to work on me the doctor will give me a longer course. I don't think I can be on patches until I'm ready for Oestrogen only which will be a few years off.

    It seems unfair to me but I suppose I should just be grateful I don't have long-term health conditions which mean I'd have been paying this sort of money before.

    I hope the NHS are going to do good work with the extra money they're getting off me! image

  • Nurse Ratched wrote (see)
    Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

    Dunno  Doesn't it depend on the inducements being offered by the drug reps ?

    Excellent point.
    When I was based in a GP surgery, our doctors wouldn't see reps, but I know lots do.

    Thought that was how Doc's can keep the gin habit going.....image


     

  • Little Nemo - waving, not drowning! wrote (see)

    I'd like it to be free but I can understand that as I can afford to pay I'll have to pay. I'm really just querying why I have to pay 2 prescriptions for one course of treatment. As I understand it I have to have take Oestrogen and Progesterone for 2 weeks out of 4 because I have to have periods to cut the risk of endometrial cancer. I don't really understand why having 2 different sorts of pills which come on the SAME blister pack mean it counts as 2 prescriptions.

    I've only just started HRT so maybe when we've agreed on what treatment is going to work on me the doctor will give me a longer course. I don't think I can be on patches until I'm ready for Oestrogen only which will be a few years off.

    It seems unfair to me but I suppose I should just be grateful I don't have long-term health conditions which mean I'd have been paying this sort of money before.

    I hope the NHS are going to do good work with the extra money they're getting off me! image

    It will fund invaluable networking opportunities for medical staff.

  • Yep... One long jolly for the NHS staff.....

  • One real anomaly with charges is that if you have certain conditions then you do not pay for any prescription whether it relates to your condition or not. 

  • That's because there's no reference to your medication exemption on the card at all. My daughter gets all her prescriptions for free due to this.

  • Gah - 3 days of missed HRT due to my own incompetence and I am in a horrible mood image

    It now seems like money well spent to put me in a better frame of mind.

    *waits impatiently for drugs to kick in*

  • Every woman of "a certain age" needs her drugs !!!

  • Dave - there aren't any more drug rep inducements any more. They're not even allowed to give out pens and post it notes now....

  • Basil Brush Mk II wrote (see)

    Dave - there aren't any more drug rep inducements any more. They're not even allowed to give out pens and post it notes now....

    or fund the "office christmas do"...   I was being cynical  (I am married to a consultant !)

  • I knowimage Can you just imagine what the pharmaceutical regulations are now costing the NHS in invoices for biros and sticky notes?!

  • She's even tried to pinch my prized "viagra ball point" back off me !!!!

  • and she makes my pay private rates for my viagra scrip......image

  • I don't think I want to know what she charges....image

  • £75 a pill and she says for a man of my age more than 1 a month would be bad for me....

  • Don't pay it.  I have had the same thing but I think it is only certain chemists that are trying it on.  Boots the Chemist does it and I have just refused to pay it.  We do not pay per chemical - we pay per prescription in this country, and we really need to hold on to that by refusing this "con".  We can shame Boots the chemist if enough of us refuse and make a fuss about it. 

  • The most recent DoH directive is that the cost is per item as I was looking at this yesterday.  I fail to see how 2 things that are in 1 blister pack are anything other than 1 item tho'.  Definitely look at the pre-paid £29 something for 3 months for any number of things so if you use more than 4 items in 3 months worth doing.

  • I have to admit I'm in the comfortable position of getting free prescriptions as a diabetic. It makes sense to me to make them all free - it undermines the concept of a 'free' health service, to my mind. Moving to Scotland seems like a good option if I ever have to pay because otherwised I'd be spending thousands a year.

  • Little Nemo - waving, not drowning! wrote (see)

     ....And I bet if men got the menopause if would be free altogether image

    GRRRR! image

    Men use the health service far less than women. 

    http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46073000/gif/_46073862_men_wom_health_serv_466gr.gif

    So if we got the menopause we'd probably just put up and shut up like we do about all the other conditions. Apparently I may have high blood pressure (marginally), the doctor wanted me to use a home testing unit (what ever you want to call it), to measure my blood pressure in relaxed surroundings and to take averages, I never went back to collect the guage because there's no way i'm paying £7+ for some pills I don't want to take for the rest of my life when I feel absolutely fine (high blood pressure has no symptoms? No symptoms, no problem!). So I might drop down dead from a heart attack due to the high blood pressure at any minute, but then I might anyway, so who cares?!

    Besides I feel doctors (gps) are themselves a modern placebo, they have no idea most of the time, they just tell people anything to make them feel better. My dad had a heart attack, his gp thought he had a chest infection, it's only because we insisted he go to A & E that he was sorted (quadruple heart bypass eventually). A friend went to his gp a couple of weeks ago with a pain in leg, gp said he'd strained his muscle, next day he couldn't breath because he's got a blood clot on his lung that came from his leg!

     

  • Fair points lardarse, I was in a bad mood when I wrote the original post so it wasn't entirely rational. My doctor has changed my prescription now so at least I only have to pay one prescription charge from now on.

    Feeling a bit calmer now image

  • the interesting one there is over 75...........when there is less old men alive than women..........the one less go more often..

    so that could prove that because men got o teh doctors less then they are more likely to die ..( could have been prevented if they had gone earlier ).and those who don't die are iller as a result........

    the two age groups where women really outstrip the men are in the one one age group where they have pregnancies............and therefore have to keep an eye on things.and then menopause when things go haywire........interesting.........

  • Men get the worst form of menopause - second hand!

  • Fiona J - I agree that one product in a blister pack should command one prescription charge and not two.  Other products - like menthol and eucalyptus for colds, or glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis, don't command two prescription charges.  If two or more products work together to create a remedy then it is still one remedy - and therefore one prescription charge.  There is a real point of principle here. 

  • WombleWomble ✭✭✭
    As a lady of a certain age, I finally had a coil fitted earlier this year to deal with my symptoms. It's saved me a fortune in prescription and 'other' costs. And I didn't have to pay for the coil. Brilliant!
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