On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:51:12 +0000, polygonum wrote:

On 15/02/2013 12:40, David.WE.Roberts wrote:


I go to the patient review meetings at our practice and they have stated
that they have saved significant money by cutting the prescription maximum
from 3 months to 2 months.

My feeling is that they could start with 1 month prescriptions, and work
upwards with those with chronic conditions to 2,3 even 6 months of
medication.

The assumption being that if you have been on the same medication for over
a year and the general prognosis is that you aren't going to peg out soon
from any known condition then you might as well have a long term supply.

I wonder, though, how much saving comes from the retire patients going to
Spain for 3 months over winter and having to buy one month's worth of
medication abroad. :-)

Cheers

Dave R


Or maybe relate the prescription length to the cost of the medicine?

As I say, in my case, £12 a year. Honestly, I can't believe it is worth
doing even two prescriptions rather than one!

We do see (if you read Pulse!) lots of complaints over the work burden
on doctors of handling repeat prescriptions. That could be reduced. :-)

It would be useful if all doctors took that view. A couple of medicines
wouldn't be too serious if I ran out of them but the Warfarin...! That could
prove fatal or worse if I didn't have it.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway