NHS prescriptions as Private

[SolomonQ]

Hi People,

im still a pre-reg but i was wondering considering the possibility of treating NHS prescriptions as private prescriptions for those who have to pay, especially since the welsh have abolished their fees and the scottish have put in place systems to achive the same in a few years time, leavin us in England to pay an extra health fee ontop of the NI we have to cough out.

The pharmacy I work at charges a minimum private Rx price of £4.85, and NHS prescription cost is abviously £6.85. The bad point is the extra paperwork but the good point is its cheaper for the patient (£2) and also the pharmacy makes more than the measley DT remuneration + 90p (considering category M reductions) and also has the potential to attract more patient in the short term as patients see it as better value pharmacy.

Abvioulsy employee pharmacists and locums woudnt benefit from this but small independent pharmacies would. I had a brief discussion about this with my manager/tutor but he said a similar case occured in wales a few years back and it was ecided that the prescrition script was the property of the NHS and must be returned to them.

Can anyone provide more information or care to offer their opinions on this for me, please?

Thankyou!!

[Zoggite]

The MHS counter fraud unit could prosecute you for depriving the NHS of two pounds' worth of revenue for every item you "switch"... I can't find any reference to such a case, but I seem to remember hearing about it in the late 1990s...

[lamzee]

I remember hearing about the case. Something to do with the form stating "this form is property of the NHS" on the back, I think.

[Defblade]

The chap was (ironically) doing it in wales, during and after the miners' strike IIRC (this is all IIRC!) - took a loooong time to come to court. He was doing it to save the miners' money in their hardship (no pay, no benefits) and only charged the cost of the meds - ie no profit margin involved (or may have been +standard nhs dispensing fee??? anyway, nothing major).

Eventually found guilty of witholding the NHS's property - the FP10s, which he was holding as private scripts for 2 years. Not really fined or anything but the case was brought to make precedent clear that this action is illegal.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by SolomonQ

Can anyone provide more information or care to offer their opinions on this for me, please?

An NHS prescription has all the information on it necessary for a Private prescription.

The NHS script AFAIK no longer states that it is the property of the NHS.

The only reason for not treating it as private is political.

Jeff

[Titch]

Queried similar issue with society in past - can hospital inpatient scripts be dispensed as private scripts in community pharmacy.

Answer from DOH was NO!!

Reason - patient been seen by an NHS doctor for a consultation on NHS time therefore cannot be classed as a private patient at the same time.

I would suspect the same arguement would apply here - yes I agree it's political.

Likewise, there have been GPs reprimanded (not sure who by) for giving patients who pay for their script NHS and private scripts for the same item(s) and tellling them to use whichever is the cheaper.

There used to be something in the front of the NPA guide to the Drug Tariff (I think it was that NPA book anyway!) that stated something about scripts being NHS property.

[johnep]

Am getting scripts for amoxicillin which are printed on white part of form. If form only to be used for NHS, what about all the viagara scripts?

Drs do not want to pay out for stationery.
johnep

[JonF]

Last year i saw a dentist privately. He gave me a NHS Rx for antibiotics? How does that work!

[SolomonQ]

Hi,

I was quite surprised and pleased at the same time for the responses my post got, thankyou for that. maybe if all i got after a day was one reply i'd probably not come back to this forum again, but the number of replies makes me wonder why this forum isnt more popular with pharmacists, as im sure quite a few of them will have a myspace or facebook account by now.

Regardin the replies, well the loss to the NHS would be the whole £6.85 not £2 as Zoggite pointed out, and ive checked the NHS forms, no where on there it says its the property of the NHS or anyone else. End of the day this is another stealth tax being levied by the powers that be call em the NHS or the government. Majority if not all of the people who have to pay the NHS prescription charge are hard-working and are already paying their dues in terms of Tax and NI. my NI as a pre-reg works out to be in the region of £55-60 PER WEEK, of which I pay about £28.50. but if i would need to pay 6.85 per item for any NHS prescription, Is this fair?

One reason why i'm goin on about this is because most people arent too please to pay the charge adnt he ones that make comments about it blame immigrants etc... and im not of english origin myself, lol, so theres an awkward moment when they realise my presence in the dispensary, lol.

A non-rhetorical question considering the point that some GPs were reprimanded for issuing private prescriptions for cheaper items, does anyone know if GPs are given incentives in anyway to prescribe these cheaper items for people who have to pay? because if people knew the amoxiciliin theyre paying £6.85 for isnt gona cure their virus induced cold, then they would ask for alternatives. but GPs still hand these prescritions out despite many organisations discouraging this practice (one recent news story that i cant recall now).

Peace out
A town

[Pharmanaut]

Originally Posted by SolomonQ

Regardin the replies, well the loss to the NHS would be the whole £6.85 not £2 as Zoggite pointed out, and ive checked the NHS forms, no where on there it says its the property of the NHS or anyone else. End of the day this is another stealth tax being levied by the powers that be call em the NHS or the government. Majority if not all of the people who have to pay the NHS prescription charge are hard-working and are already paying their dues in terms of Tax and NI. my NI as a pre-reg works out to be in the region of £55-60 PER WEEK, of which I pay about £28.50. but if i would need to pay 6.85 per item for any NHS prescription, Is this fair?

Watch what happens from 1st April, when the charge in Scotland reduces with the intention of phasing it out.
Should make for interesting News and Newspapers for the day.