Prescription charges

Maryeliza and Bathsheba have the same idea and it’s one that my clients and I have discussed.
You are all quite right it is not an insurmountable problem for most people but it will be for some. So a card for a repeat proscription that has to be paid for seems quite a simple solution.

I think Bathsheba’s point was the best yet, a card allowing a similar purchase to the amount a Dr prescribes seems an easy compromise.

And of course I know people can traipse from one shop to the next buying their paracetemol - but why should they? Why why why?

Maw I know about your personal experiences - that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to equate savlon with
Paracetemol needed for chronic pain. Rather than coming up with ideas about how people can keep their stocks up, why not instead have a system where such people could buy a months supply at a time? There is also the point that cornergran brought up that such people should be being monitored by their GPs and their paracetemol use should be in their medical records. I think it’s sheer nonsense to conflate the 8 a day people with the occasional user and we shouldn’t think that just because a drug is OTC it’s safe - if it were, why is there NHS guidance about restricting the amount to be sold at any one time?

No need to be abusive maryeliza, a sure sign your argument on its last legs.
Read some of the other posts about buying a couple of packets every time you go shopping and having adequate supplies stockpiled. Unless you live miles and miles from even a village shop this is a perfectly easy solution. It is even possible to go into more than one shop on your high street and buy your two packets in each, has that never occurred to you.
And not preach to me about chronic illness and genuine drug dependence. After 21years of Paw’s lengthy list of repeat meds of 12 different pills twice or thrice a day including anti- rejection drugs, I do have some experience!

Paracetamol is paracetamol -no difference between generic and brand names - except price - check the patients information sheet

night anno

PS Once,in Boots, I bought two packs of paracetamol and gave my GD the money to buy me another two packs. On leaving the store, madam, in ringing tones, announced, 'That's the last time I buy drugs for you, Granny!' Goodnight!

I think the cheaply made ones are not so good for your stomach, as far as I know.
Maybe its an urban myth, but I think they aren't so well coated?

Well, my daughter needed and used hers. She was in no position to pop to the shops and buy more.
It took almost 2 years to get her prescription delivery sorted, all too late really.

I buy 2 packs of 16 paracetamol @ 19p per pack each time I visit Aldi. Supermarkets are quite strict about the 2 pack limit as I discovered when I unthinkingly put a cold remedy in my trolley along with the paracetamol and was told I couldn't have it. It's much more expensive in Waitrose and somewhere in between in Tesco. As for Panadol, which is the branded version, and exactly the same - why does anyone buy it at a vastly higher price?

My MiL had Paracetamol on prescription and if she ran low wouldn't let me buy more for her because she could get it free, so I had to go to her GP and order more (in my spare time!) When she moved into a home we found she had boxes and boxes,of the stuff hidden away in her cupboards.

Bloody Savlon isn’t needed 4 times a day to make you able to function pain free is it?

Maw you’ve missed the whole point - it’s not the bloody money, it’s the fact that a person who needs it daily has to keep buying it in small quantities. FFS

What’s really really sad is how incredibly self centred and selfish some people are - a total inability to look at an issue, especially a health issue, from any perspective other than their own - other people’s problems are not insurmountable.

Quite right.
Why on earth have an over the counter med on prescription? Similarly Savlon, Germolene, Alka Seltzer, Strepsiks etc etc etc
You can buy paracetamol for under 50p a packet and dont have to wait three weeks for a doctor’s appointment!

Well, everything is fine whilst you or your loved ones are well. Sad that things dont stay that way.

And of course the OP thinks it’s fine as well

But now they won’t be able to get their paracetamol on prescription - but OldMeg thinks that’s fine and dandy

There are lots of problems that aren’t insurmountable, it doesn't mean that we should as a society therefore leave people in need to work out for themselves how to surmount them but rather that we as decent human beings should devise solutions for them - living with mobility and pain problems is bad enough without sanctimonious people telling them to just suck it up. FFS

Housebound people have their prescriptions delivered, if there is nobody to go to the shops for them I certainly don't resent them getting paracetamol in with their other stuff.

Exactly cornergran, exactly.

Don’t be so harsh Old Meg - I’m on thyroxin, I’m prescribed 8 weeks at a time(and it’s free) - why should people living with chronic pain have to sort out arrangements for getting their medication every few days just because it’s available OTC- there’s a medical need for it. As I’ve said, my BIL does pay,the least NHS England could do is come up with a system whereby he could get at least 4 weeks at a time at the chemist and pay for it - I take it you don’t need daily OTC painkillerss - well lucky you

32 paracetamol is 4 whole days supply at maximum dose. Surely those with mobility problems still have to buy food or get someone to buy it for them. This is hardly an insurmountable problem.

Medicine that can be bought OTC should not be on prescription IMO

Had this discussion with the GP when she recommended, well no insisted on, 8 per day as the least damaging route for me. She was firm in her opinion, paracetamol should be prescribed if appropriate for chronic conditions as otherwise the GP has no way of monitoring both consumption and the patients wellbeing.