chemist won't supply prescription

[oddjobbob]

Hi

 

I hope someone might be able to advise:

 

a little background:-

 

my mum is terminally ill and to give her an extra few weeks a blood transfusion has been suggested. Fine. Except that she's already terribly frail and petrified of hospitals, has dementia so like familiarity so rather than put her through all that we declined, and the GP suggested that instead she could have periodic injections of EPO so that her blood count etc would improve.

 

Great, but EPO is only available on the NHS to end stage kidney failure patients, and she doesn't have this, so although it would help, the GP could only issue a private prescription, which I'm happy to pay for and was told by the GP it would be about £90.

 

Took it into her local pharmacy (NOT a big chain) who said it was a 'special' and would take up to 5 days. OK, well, seemed a long time, but what do I know.

 

3 days later they called and said it would be £588. I said that was impossible. They said they'd look into it.

 

Heard nothing for another 4 days so went in and asked, and £588 is the price for a pack of six, my mum has been prescribed one per month - she probably has 2 months or so left.

 

Their reasoning is that because they have to buy 6 they will have to charge me for 6 even though I only have a prescription for one.

 

I asked for and got the prescription back and have since taken it elsewhere and had it filled for £98.

 

Can a pharmacy do this, i.e. refuse to fill a prescription for monetary reasons? Or are they compelled to supply what's asked as part of their licence to be pharamcists?

 

Any help appreciated as I don't care for their attitude and wish to make them aware of their responsibilities if they have any.

 

Thanks

 

Bob

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

A private prescription is a vastly different animal from the FP10 NHS script, the commercial cost, dispensing fees have to be met by the pharmacy, pharmacies are a business and need profits to survive the cost of the pack of 6 is what the pharmacy will have to pay if only 2 doses are to be dispensed then the balance is lost to the business if there are no other calls for the product.

[Honey Monster]

Unfortunately, you may not like the stance taken by the pharmacy but they are well within their right not to dispense on the private prescription as you would have liked.

 

As it is a private prescription the pharmacies NHS contract (and associated requirements) do not apply. The pharmacy is in this instance acting as a business and as such although you may expect them to lose around £400 to satisfy your needs, being a small chain / private pharmacy, it is unlikely they would feel the same.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

It is unfortunate the because of the 'prescription charges' set by government a completely false impression is given as to the real costs of medication.

 

This has gone on since the first levy of 0ne Shilling per item was made on NHS scripts,.

 

I can remember the arguments and rants from people being asked to pay the levy and faced the same arguments from those who had to pay the commercial cost of the prescription plus a professional fee for dispensing the script as a 17 year old articled apprentice in pharmacy in the mid 60s.

[oddjobbob]

Thanks for that.

 

I had no problem with paying for it, just the excess time it took and the attitude. i.e I said ok if I pay for 6 do I get 6? 'No, only one' Then in that case I don't see how they can keep them if I've paid for them and they belong to me!

 

But found another pharmacy that was much more helpful and said they can get rid of the rest through an internal excess supply forum thing they have.

 

Have been abroad and ill myself and well appreciate that drugs are expensive.

 

Case closed!

 

Bob

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Not all independent pharmacies have access to that forum, will say no more on that point.

Only the exact amount of a prescribed medication can be dispensed, you cannot be supplied with any more of a prescription only medication this is why a pharmacy declined to dispense this prescription.

[Honey Monster]

The reason you were quoted a time scale of upto 5 days is because the item asked for on the prescription was a 'special' item.

 

This means it is not a drug / item that is stock ed by general wholesalers such as AAH etc and as such has to be ordered via a Specials Laboratory . They then either manufacture the drug to order or (more likely in this case) order it direct from the manufacturer.

 

The manufacturer / Specials Lab are the ones that control the delivery time scales but as is the norm, the 'face' of the delivery process (in this case the pharmacy) are the ones that have to deal with dissatisfied customers.