On 15/02/2013 10:34, Mike Barnes wrote:
Nightjar :
Having to get a prescription every month is a NICE recommendation, to
reduce the cost to the NHS from medicine supplied to people who die
before using it all.

That might be a good reason for not allowing the drugs to be collected
more than a month in advance. But there's no reason not to issue a one-
year prescription with monthly collections. This would make life easier
for the doctor and the patient. Of course the prescription period
wouldn't exceed the review period. I believe similar systems operate in
some other countries.

There is now an electronic prescription mechanism which seems to allow
this or something similar. And, at that level, it is a good idea. (The
GPs only want to check levels once a year, and that mainly because they
get an extra payment for doing so. So why six or twelve prescriptions?)

However, I do NOT like the way all these new prescription systems are
tying you to a single pharmacy. There are three makers of my medicine in
the UK. Many people report that the differences are significant despite
them supposedly being therapeutically identical. There have often been
supply difficulties. And when there are, I want the freedom to go round
all local pharmacists, and internet pharmacies, to keep the the same make.

And my partner gets something prescribed that is not a standard UK
product. She managed to source this from one pharmacy - if she goes
elsewhere they supply different products so she has to go back to the
same place again and again. But as that is inconvenient, we get almost
everything else at a more local pharmacy! So we really do not want to be
stuck with one pharmacy. (If she cashed in her prescription at the
Sainsbury pharmacy, they would supply a special order product that costs
a very large part of a thousand pounds. With an expiry date of one
month. What she actually gets is a standard German product at a cost of,
we think, less than a hundred.)

--
Rod