Prescriptions
Having had prescriptions from my GP recently for my Lamotrigine, I’ve discovered some interesting things…
I’m on a dosage of 150mg, and since the drug company makes the tablets in 100mg and 50mg (also 25mg) then I need a couple of boxes of 100mg and a couple of boxes of 50mg.
Are you with me?
Okay, so my GP made a mistake on the 50mg dosage while we were chatting – I’ve had the same GP for 6 years and she is absolutely brillant! She crossed out her mistake, initialled it, and printed off another little green form with the correct 50mg infomation on it, and then stapled the two together.
Now, at the chemists, with a long queue behind me, form duely signed and debit card in hand, the assistant asked the pharmacist if they had Lamotrigine in stock, which they did, and then proceeded to charge me £14.20 for two prescriptions.
Two?
Er, yeah. Two.
You see, I had a one little green form for the100mg tablets and another little green form for the 50mg tablets; and that’s two separate little green forms, which means two separate prescriptions.
Still with me?
And two separate prescriptions means two seperate charges of £7.10. Total: £14.10.
Naturally, having made a bit of a scene at the injustice, I decided, on principal, to return to my GP and get the prescription redone on one little green form.
Job done.
Okay so here we have it. A couple of boxes of 100mg and a couple of boxes of 50mg now both (yes, both) on one little green form.
No problem. I had a fresh little green form on which I had two separate lines of information. On one line was couple of boxes of 100mg tablets, and on another, a couple of boxes of 50mg tablets.
Now, just in case you are in any doubt, (you’d think this was a relatively easy concept to grasp, but you’d be wrong, I can assure you!) this is the same drug; just different tablet sizes so that I can take the required dose each day.
So?
Well, according to my chemist, two separate lines of information means two separate prescriptions which of course means two separate charges. (Yeah, I know, and you thought I was mad!)
Now, having also been told by my GP that Lamotrigine is pretty cheap and is costing the NHS a lot less that the current £7.10 prescription charge, you can understand how I was feeling.
Needless to say there was no way I was paying twice for the same drug. I made that very clear.
And I mean very clear.
I can now report that my card has been debited with £7.10. Thankfully for me my brilliant GP prescribed four months worth of tablets (the most she is allowed to do on one prescription) and so I won’t be going back to the chemsist anytime soon!
