Scottish/Welsh prescription form

[MrStevens.]

I wonder if there’s anybody here that has come across this, maybe living near Scotland or Wales. Apparently there’s no tick box and no declaration section on the reverse of a Scottish and Welsh prescription form. Does it mean their signature is not required? What if presented in England? I have never seen the above but if English regulations apply, when dispensed in England, then would do with a signature box, and the declaration section. Do you get patients to sign anywhere?

[Sandman]

The back of the Scottish prescription form hasn't changed (yet) - if I remember it's the opposite of the English form - the top declaration is for patients who pay, then the bottom section has the exemption categories with signature box underneath. Since Rx charges were abolished all patients now sign the top box as if they have paid, mainly as proof of collection, but this is not essential (as there is no switching). The Schedule 2+3 CD collection box does still have to be signed for those drugs as well.

If a Scottish (and presumably Welsh) prescription is presented in England then the patient would need to pay the current English script charge unless they can tick an exemption category, as before.

[Ijenks]

The Welsh prescription forms still have the declaration information on the back. As Sandman says, if a Welsh prescription is presented in England it will need to be paid for at the English rate.

[johnep]

So what happens if an English script is dispensed in Wales?
johnep

[Gordon Mackenzie]

Don't know about Wales. If English script is dispensed in Scotland charge is £7.40. A Welsh script dispensed in Scotland is free as is a Northern Irish script and I believe an Isle of Man script is also free but to be absolutely certain need to contact Community Pharmacy Scotland. If Scottish script dispensed in England I believe that it would be charged at £7.40. Things are getting complicated though.

[Ijenks]

So what happens if an English script is dispensed in Wales?
johnep

The English prescription charge is levied. It's a nonsense to be honest, the number of "Stupid" items we dispense since the charges disappeared has exploded - it is no longer uncommon to supply 32 paracetamol tabs etc.

[Sandman]

The English prescription charge is levied. It's a nonsense to be honest, the number of "Stupid" items we dispense since the charges disappeared has exploded - it is no longer uncommon to supply 32 paracetamol tabs etc.

Haven't seen much of this but then in Scotland we have the Minor Ailments Service (the bane of any Scottish community pharmacist's life) where exempt patients can get free P or GSL medicines to treat minor conditions. Quite often a doctor will advise a patient to just go into the pharmacy and get medicines this way (eg they will prescribe a children's antibiotic and advise the mother to ask the pharmacy for Calpol on minor ailments - mainly to save on the GP's budget)

Since the abolition of prescription charges the same exemptions apply as did before for this - ie someone who paid script charges is still ineligible to use this service - I believe the reason is that charges have technically not been 'abolished' as such, but 'reduced to zero'. In other words non-exempt patients now pay a levy of £0.00 per item.

[weeneldo]

I wonder if there’s anybody here that has come across this, maybe living near Scotland or Wales.

Believe it or not, some of us not only live near Scotland or Wales, but actually live IN Scotland or Wales! Crazy eh? Who would have thought we have modern medicine up here?