Do you have your prescription note with you? If so and it’s a repeat script UK pharmacies will usually fill it - but charge as a private prescription.
Otherwise take your meds to a doctor - check around there are private doctors/walk in clinics where it’s a lot easier to get an appointment and not that expensive for a one off. I don’t know if Brexit has changed the rules with EU prescriptions and I know it could be a pain with places like Boots (smaller pharmacy aren’t ruled by their computer system)
If you have, or can get, your ordnance go to the chemist your daughter uses. If your drugs are at all critical then they may well dispense on emergency basis to Grandad.
Or phone 111, as getting a GP appointment to write a new prescription is apparently hard. With the S1 you are entitled, so make sure you tell them you are not a health tourist!
Failing all that you have to pay for a walk in service.
If you have an S1, the advice is to take it with you as proof you have an entitlement to NHS care. They do not have any easy way of checking otherwise.
If you do have problems, your mutuelle may also be able to help.
But would a UK chemist, even if he/she understood French, be willing to fulfil a prescription in a foreign language? I know many medical terms are similar and sometimes the same, but not always, and it might leave them open to prosecution or censure if something went wrong.
Unless of course the meds were over the counter anyway.
Very easy for a pharmacist to identify drugs and find the local equivalent, especially in Europe when more and more prescriptions are generic so use the name of the chemical not a brand name.
Last time daughter came to join us on holiday on other side of France she lost her drugs on the way (forgot a bag at customs!) The french pharmacist who I had only seen once before appreciated that these were necessary drugs that she couldn’t be without so gave her an emergency supply on the basis of an emailed photo of a prescription form written in English. Be positive, and persuasive!
I had the same problem, pre Brexit. I spoke to someone on the NHS’ helpline 111? In turn a Dr called me, did his checks then told me to go to the main hospital and a Dr would assess me. Because of the circumstances I was unable to tell the Dr how long I would be in the UK. He was happy to give me three months, and come back for another script if I needed it
Good luck Andy and congratulations to your family🚼
S1 entitles you to care in UK as well as the ‘resident’ country, so why not register at the local GP and ask the receptionist to get the doc to write up the prescriptions - who knows, you may also be able to get a checkup as newly registered!
And if over 60 the scripts are ‘free’ though I read recently there was a (tory) govt proposal to stop that. And you could get an eye checkup too while in the UK?
Absolutely! And I am still registered with a GP practice but I haven’t got a chance in hell of getting an appointment under a month. Other post codes may vary…
If you have your S1 that covers you for all treatment and meds in the UK. The S1 is the document which enables you to have treatment in France - and is paid for by the NHS. As for signing up with a GP that isn’t necessary as it works exactly in the same way as if you were needing treatment or meds on holiday in the UK.
