NHS prescription penalty charges (again)

[hertygruten]

Hi,

 

I've just received a penalty charge notice from NHS BSA for a prescription I got a couple of months ago. I rang up to complain (more details below) but didn't get anywhere with persuading the lady on the other end of the phone that I wasn't at fault. I have two questions: Firstly - how do I appeal? It doesn't seem obvious from the net or from the letter the NHS sent me. Secondly, do I have a case against the penalty charge (deets below)?

 

So, the story: Basically, I rang up my GP about 2 months ago and asked for some items that were on prescription. They asked me if I had a pharmacy I preferred, I said yes and gave them the details of a place I'd got prescriptions from before. The last time I visited the pharmacy (I've since discovered) I used a prescription prepayment card and therefore was exempt from the charges, but that card expired 6 months ago.

 

About 2 days after I spoke to the GP I came home and my medications (without any accompanying documentation, that I can recall) were on the doormat having been posted through the letterbox. I thought that was a little strange as I thought there would be a bill with it or similar, but I was kind of busy with work, etc. at the time, so didn't really look into it. About 2 weeks later... penalty charge. I've never seen the prescription documentation, ticked any boxes, signed anything, or actively misrepresented myself, as far as I can tell, but the lady at NHS BSA's (spurious) argument was that I should have known to ring up the pharmacy and say that I no longer had a prescription prepayment card. I didn't, in fact, even know that the pharmacy was going to deliver the medications, and I assumed there would be a bill forthcoming. My argument was that it was on the pharmacy to check my prepayment status, not to assume that I did.

 

So, am I going to get anywhere or am I just banging my head against a brick wall?