Does your GP practice issue 28 or 56 day meds ?

[shaznay 10]

this is just a query as to whether your sugery do 28 day prescriptions or 56

 

the surgery I work at has just changed from issuing 56 days meds to 28 days

 

obviously this is causing an outcry from those who have to pay for their meds

 

apprently most surgeries only do 28 day meds supply, I wasnt aware of this

 

was just wondering how common this is

 

feedback would be appreciated ... thanks

[HeadingNorth 11]

It was about 1993 when the NHS issued "guidelines" that repeat prescriptions should not be for more than 28 days at a time. I never did find out why, though.

[shaznay 10]

I think proberbly to cut down on wastage which is what they are saying now

 

control drugs are always 28 days only

 

also they say that the majority of patients dont pay for their meds anyway

 

if you are on 2 or more meds it would pay to get a pre-payment card

 

£104 for the year, can be paid by 10 months installments of 10.40

[mollie 10]

our surgery did it last year and i was furious, it means you either have to give them your money up front which does save you money , the price of a pre payment card did not go up so that is the way they expected paying patients to go , otherwise you pay twelve times a year instead of four.

i need three a month so i was on the border line before and did not buy a card, i have to now because its so expensive otherwise. its not the people who pay for precriptions that waste them so they have not stopped wastage, just made us pay for it.

[Mister M 1,608]

I'm on a repeat prescription and have been since 2003. In that time I've always had mine on a 28 day basis.

I know it doesn't sound much but £7:65 is a lot of money to fork out each month - especially since I only work part time. However I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I don't have to pay the 'market rate' for them

[jane2008 15]

Our sugery does 28 day prescriptions and has for as long as I can remember.

[Rupert_Baehr 10]

I take 7 meds every day. During the past 4 or 5 years, I've obtained them from 2 sources.

 

One (my US provider) gives me 3-month prescriptions. - There is some wastage (when something goes wrong, I develop an adverse reaction to a drug or the doctor decides to change it for some other reason in the middle of a prescription.) The operators of that system appear to accept that there will be some wastage, but they dispense massive amounts of medication to hundreds of patients each day and they seem to think that the manpower savings make it worthwhile. Getting 3 months supply at a time means I don't have to go to the pharmacy very often.

 

(In fact, I can 'call in' the prescription to the 'robotic pharmacy' and the robot checks my eligibility and dispenses the medications automatically for me to pick up the following morning.)

 

The other system I've been using is the German pharmacy system. The doctor submits a prescription and the pharmacy provides what it feels like providing. It provides a 'standard package' of the medication.

 

The size of the 'standard package' is determined by the manufacturers.

 

Tablets are not dispensed from bulk stock into bottles, you get a package provided by he manufcturer. There are 'small' 'medium' and 'large' pacakges - and they are anything but standard!

 

Some medications come in 100-day supplies, others in 30 day supplies and some (including medications a patient may require on a long-term basis) in 10 day supplies.

 

It's a nuisance and it mandates far too many trips to the pharmacy!