Hi there. A simple question, but nothing is so simple these days. My wife is due to go to the UK in a few days time for a month. Our daughter is due to give birth in a few weeks and it is of course possible that she may need to stay longer.
Her supply of statins runs out after the date she is due to come back but she would prefer to have more with her just in case she does extend her trip. Our GP issued a new prescription but because she is not due a renewal yet she was told by our local pharmacy that they would have to charge her and that she would then have to claim the cost as a reimbursement. Having bad experience of these things we would prefer to avoid that hassle if possible. We are only talking about €60 but we so often find ourselves out of pocket even with an expensive mutuelle, due in part to our own dilatory admin (not my strong point).
Seems we have three other options and I wonder what people here think of each?
Go to another pharmacy to have the prescription filled - or do they have access to the same records as our village pharmacy?
2. Take the prescription to the UK and get it filled there. We are here as WA residents and have an S1 and are fully entitled to NHS care so presumably there would be no prescription charge (she is over 70)
3. I keep the prescription here and get it filled at the end of June and mail her the tablets.
Option 2 seems the most simple and probably worth trying and option 3 as a fallback, but could try option 1 maybe? I feel sure this must have been asked before but I couldn’t find it if so.
Pharmacists can issue an emergency supply of most medications without a UK prescription if they deem it necessary.
What to bring: Take the empty medication packaging, an old prescription, or a summary from your patient portal back home. Proof of your identity may be required.
Controlled Drugs: Pharmacists cannot provide emergency supplies of certain controlled drugs (e.g., strong painkillers or specific sedatives).
Cost: You will likely need to pay the full private cost of the medication or the standard NHS prescription charge.
(You might be able to negotiate the last bit if you bring proof of your S1. But given that the standard NHS prescription charge is £9.90 per item it’s going to be cheaper than paying full whack in France anyway.)
I suspect you’ll find that, since it’s not an NHS prescription, you’ll end up paying the full price for it. That’s what happened with us a couple of years ago in Glasgow.
The other challenge we had was that Boots wouldn’t fill it because it wasn’t signed in ink by the doctor, it was a print from Doctolib. We had to go to a small family pharmacy to get it filled.
Your pharmacy are being stupid! I regularly get 3 months boxes of basic drugs like statins without even asking. Take this attestation and push politely (shouldn’t actually be necessary under 3 months, but paper can work wonders).
Personally I would go back to them and be more forceful about it. If not go to another pharmacy. They all have access to same information but may not be so rigid.
She gets a 3 month supply but is only halfway through it. Generally they are pretty good at the local pharmacy and I would guess that this is not optional - she did say we would get the money back (but have to dance through hoops to do so). I suspect I can get it foc in the UK, as we have full NHS coverage and are over 60 so no prescription charge anyway.
Or actually, option 4 is that I have he exact same statin, except a double dose (I had a stent 12yrs ago) and I have plenty, so I could always lend her some and she can take half a tablet instead of a whole one daily.
Is it worth asking your MT about the effect of a short break if the stay proves longer than planned.
Or, pharmacies in the UK might be able to issue an emergency supply as long as you make sure you have your prescription with you. Or 111 can advise I believe.
That’s my experience, too - regarding OH’s many pills for heart and heaven knows what
However, if I need anything outside of the ordinary timetable, I explain to them the why’s and wherefores and (if necessary) speak to their head-honcho who is the actual Pharmacist/Doctor.
and, if push comes to shove the Pharmacy phone our own Doctor to confirm that what I am asking them to do meets with “official” approval.
No way would I go abroad without sufficient medication!
The UK has very much tightened up on that. I suspect it’s at the pharmacist’s discretion even if it’s a drug for which it’s theoretically possible to get, say, a month’s supply in emergency without prescription.
I would also like to know if anyone has had a French prescription for spectacles filled in the UK.
Of course I looked at that and other guidance from the NHS but they apply primarily to EU or other nationals, or maybe even to UK nationals resident overseas who have no entitlement to free NHS care. As holders of a WARP we are fully entitled to NHS treatment, not just via our EHIC, so I am near certain that we will not be subject to charges. Worst case we could go to a UK GP free of charge and get them to issue a prescription, but that would be stupid and a waste of resources. I am sure I can find a pharmacist who is pragmatic.
Our pharmacist here is also pragmatic, but as you know sometimes in France “rules is rules” and I certainly don’t want them to be out of pocket. Systems and processes are set up in a certain way and they likely can’t override the system even if they fully understand the reasons and sympathise.
Ah, you didn’t say that….
Generally there is a date when you can refill a prescription in advance, but not sure what that is for a 3 month box.
But they are cheaper than chips, so on average a month’s box is less than €1.50 so maybe just use online UK doc to provide new private prescription and fill that?
Several times I’ve had to stop all drugs abruptly including statins and it’s never been an issue.
I would think you can, and since I mostly buy my specs from online suppliers (the same firm in the UK and in France, only the language and the currency changes) then it is easy. Can’t see why a high st optician wouldn’t do the same, but I would question why you might want to do this?
In my experience (deja vu here; I am sure I have had this conversation/argument before) the quality of vision testing in the UK is superior to that in France. Of course there will be exceptions both ways, but I do speak from more than the usual experience, as I am involved with some 300+ professors of ophthalmology in Europe as well as other vision professionals, and one of our projects is to improve the testing regime in all countries. The network is aimed at improving treatment for all rare eye diseases but the observations are universal - an ophthalmologist specialising in rare eye diseases is generally someone at the top of their game and of course also sees patients with more common eye conditions.
I generally take a sight test when I am in the UK and go to Specsavers, where they have expensive OCT scanning machines. I pay nothing for the basic test and to get my prescription and I think it was ÂŁ10 last time for the OCT scan. The optometrist who carried out my last few tests was very thorough and knowledgeable and I felt more confident in his competence than I am with that in many teaching hospitals. As for my last eye test in France - about 3 different technicians carrying out the test and a 2 minute overview from the actual ophthalmologist, I am sorry but it did not begin to compare.
At the end of the day, does it really matter? Well, for a basic prescription likely not and a prescription written in France is very likely to be near identical to one written a week later in the UK. But the eye is a window into so many other health conditions, and not just eye related, and I regard a consciencious eye checkup as being a kind of screening as well as something I need to get the right specs. In general I book a high st test in the UK a few weeks before I travel there and tend to have it done once a year, as there is a family history of glaucoma.q
Expensive chips! Online cost is €50 so only a few euro less than the village pharmacy. That is for Reselip, mind, which is a combination drug with simvastatin and ezetimebe and I will grant you the simvastatin alone is cheaper. And it is a moot point whether she should be taking this more expensive drug, as the evidence for increased efficacy is flaky TBH, especially for someone without any cardiac history, but that is what the doctor ordered. I might have that conversation with my cardiologist next time I see him, as I have just been taking his recommendation until now and only saw the latest criticism of this combined therapy recently. In my wife’s case, it was prescribed by the village GP and probably not based on any deep thinking, just a feeling that it represents best practice (more expensive means more effective)?
You’ll need to find a pharmacist who’s happy to pay for your prescription as they won’t be getting paid for it by the NHS.
In any event, the govt webpage is quite specific that it’s for prescriptions issued overseas, if there were cut outs for nationality and S1 status, they would be right there so that pharmacists were aware of any exceptions.
This is where I, as a UK taxpayer, start getting grumpy as it’s abuse of the NHS.
The French pharmacy has advised that the cost would be refunded, just that it’s a bit more complicated and involves forms.
Use an online supplier in UK? Her drug is called Inergy there
However I still think challenging your pharmacist in the politest possible way could work, as long as her current prescription extends to cover the time necessary. They’ve been happy to give her 3 months, so can extend what she has to top up to three months again.
