Mastodawn

Friends in England, a message for you.

I have periodically posted this before, but it's been a while since I last did, and I was putting my pills into my pill organiser and thought of it.

If you regularly have prescriptions, you do NOT need to pay for them all. This isn't terribly well advertised, and lots of people go through life never needing a repeat prescription then suddenly finding they need lots (me, I did this, up until I was 42 my only regular medicine was an antihistamine, now I have a full pill organiser).

A pre-pay prescription certificate can be purchased for a year and costs a little less than the price of 12 prescriptions (£114.50 compared to £118.80 if you have one prescription a month for a year). You can buy for this in instalments by direct debit, you don't have to stump it up all in one go.

You can also buy a three-month certificate for £32.50 (slightly more than the cost of three prescriptions).

These prices are fixed. It costs the same whether you're getting one prescription a month or ten. If you have at least one a month then the yearly certificate WILL save you money.

Everyone in England who pays for prescriptions is eligible.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc

NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate (PPC) | NHSBSA

A PPC could save you money if you pay for your NHS prescriptions. The certificate covers all your NHS prescriptions for a set price. You will save money if you need more than 3 items in 3 months, or 11 items in 12 months.The prescription charge in England is £9.90. A PPC costs:

Bruno Girin 4d ago

@RolloTreadway The prepaid certificate is indeed excellent! I can't remember how I learnt about it, it may have been mentioned by the pharmacist or the GP.

RolloTreadway 4d ago

@brunogirin No doctor has ever mentioned it to me, despite prescribing me all these meds. I only know about it because I happened to know someone who used one years ago.

Bruno Girin 4d ago

@RolloTreadway The quality of care in the NHS is so dependent on the people you see! Occasionally you will meet someone who will take the extra 5 minutes needed to explain how the process works and give you gold nuggets of information like prepaid certificates.

The first time I got a repeat prescription, the GP didn't tell me how they worked and then told me off for not renewing it properly.

It must have been the pharmacist or the practice nurse who told me about prepaid certificates.

Mike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺4d ago

@brunogirin @RolloTreadway
I've certainly heard the staff at our local pharmacy telling people about the prepayment certificates.

@MikeFromLFE @brunogirin @RolloTreadway also, if your regular meds are now in 4-week packs instead of 30-day (because pharma companies are gougers who want to sell 13 month packs each year), you can get four 4-week repeat cycles on a three-month prepay if you are sharp on dates because the NHS still does the right thing even when pharma doesn't. I've never heard anyone official point that out.

#NHS #prepaid #prescription

The Penguin of Evil 4d ago

@RolloTreadway Or move to Scotland or Wales and they are free anyway. Something a lot of people in England still don't realize. BTW the cost of making it free in Wales was negligible because of the sheer amount of stupid accounting, paperwork, auditing and other garbage that went away!

One to keep annoying your politicians with..

@etchedpixels @RolloTreadway The daft thing is that something like 90% of prescriptions in England are free anyway under various schemes (benefits, long term illness etc).

The Penguin of Evil 4d ago

@elphez @RolloTreadway That was a big part of the argument in Wales - we had a huge infrastructure to manage something that was best free anyway.

When they factored in reduced medical costs (eg the number of asthma emergency admissions plummeted because nobody skipped their meds) it was a massive financial win.

@etchedpixels @RolloTreadway Oh, that's interesting about the secondary effects of making it free.

NeonSnake 4d ago

@RolloTreadway ...I did not know this.

Thank you!

@RolloTreadway there’s also a pre-pay thingamabob specifically for HRT.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-hormone-replacement-therapy-prescription-prepayment-certificate-hrt-ppc

NHS Hormone Replacement Therapy Prescription Prepayment Certificate (HRT PPC) | NHSBSA

If you pay for NHS prescribed HRT medicine 3 or more times in 12 months, an HRT PPC could save you money.Each item on an NHS prescription usually costs £9.90. You can buy an HRT PPC for a one-off payment of £19.80 (the cost of two single items).The HRT PPC covers an unlimited number of certain HRT medicines for 12 months, regardless of why they are prescribed.

Epistatacadam 4d ago

@daycoder @RolloTreadway Though I do prefer the solution chosen by all other nations in the disunited kingdom. It actually costs the NHS less (as no accounting and tax collection costs) and doesn't increase drug use.

transgender_flag

@RolloTreadway
Thanks for posting this! I use it for HRT. My chemist noticed I came in every month or so for it and told me about it. It should be more transparent in the NHS.

lez-anya 4d ago

@RolloTreadway this is, at this point, the only way I've been able to keep affording both my HRT and all the meds I get trialed on for my chronic illnesses.

At this point the £115 is essentially equivalent to 3 months of medication if I were paying individually, but instead I get all 12 months for that fixed price.

NatalyaD 4d ago

@RolloTreadway The other thing to check is whether you are exempt for another reason: age, certain benefits, able to apply for reduced costs or you have an exemption for a specific (weird list of) health condition.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/free-nhs-prescriptions

I work at a university and have come across socially disadvantaged people who have an exemption health condition whose GP didn't tell them and pharmacy took money off them for meds which are obviously for an exempt condition *rage*.

Free NHS prescriptions | NHSBSA

Information for people receiving benefits and tax credits, people with medical conditions and pregnant women

Andrew Hodgson 4d ago

@vfrmedia @RolloTreadway I was looking at doing this for myself but then my GP moved me onto giving me a 3 month supply of medication. I don't know how common that is or if they can only do that with some medications but it works out cheaper now than buying this certificate.

Paul McO'Smith III 4d ago

@RolloTreadway oh, gods yes! i just swallowed tonight's "handful" and often muse on how much it must cost in the US!

if you take more than 3 medications it is worth doing, even paying the pittance we're charged here.

the bootsies people put me onto it.

it's another reason to lurv the #NHS !!!

Nature Punk 4d ago

@RolloTreadway I got so used to my prepaid certificate that when I 'graduated' to free prescriptions I forgot to stop buying one :)

Workshopshed 4d ago

@RolloTreadway my pharmacist was advertising this, this week

@RolloTreadway also if you are only on HRT you can get a year long prepayment certificate for £10.

MidgePhoto 2d ago

@RolloTreadway IIRC if you have already paid s9me charges, you can reclaim or have those set against a season ticket. But I forget the details.

@RolloTreadway and there's a much cheaper HRT-only PPC, which works for most hormones needed by transfems.

It is an injustice that asthmatics have to keep paying monthly.

When people without asthma don't.