# Will chemist give you more than 1 months supply at a time?



## wednesday (5 Nov 2013)

A friend is on 6 tablets for the rest of their life, their prescription hasn't changed in almost 5 years. GP issues 6 month repeat prescription (with just a quick call to the surgery) but they can only get a months supply at a time from the chemist.

Friend has a medical card. These 6 tablets were costing €3 per month -dispensing fee of 50c per item, this went up to €9 per month - €1.50 per item and from next month will be €15 per month - new increases put the item amount to €2.50 per item.

They understand that their small payment in no way comes close to FULLY paying for the drugs BUT their income hasn't increased at all and a 500% increase in the prescription charge will have quite an impact on their day-to-day living.

Would their GP write the prescription so that they could get 2 or 3 months supply at one time and thereby only incur one dispensing charge or is their some bar to this?


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## peteb (5 Nov 2013)

No.  The GP can only prescribe the amount due for the month otherwise the instructions would be to take too much medication.  And DPS only allows for monthly charging.


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## wednesday (5 Nov 2013)

thanks peteb


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## Spear (5 Nov 2013)

GPs can write prescriptions for up to a max of 6 months. I have no idea if being on a medical card changes that.


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## huskerdu (5 Nov 2013)

Has your friend asked the pharmacy to dispense 3 months supply at a time ?

AFAIK< Medically it is allowed, except for certain drugs that would be risky for overdoses, if the patient had too many at the same time. 

If you are paying for the drugs yourself, you can do this. 

I don't know about medical card holders, but your friend needs to ask the pharmacist.


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## huskerdu (5 Nov 2013)

Spear said:


> GPs can write prescriptions for up to a max of 6 months. I have no idea if being on a medical card changes that.


 
The OP ahs already said that the prescription is for 6 months, but the pharmacy is dispensing one month at a time.


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## Time (5 Nov 2013)

Medical card patients can get a 3 month prescription but can only receive 1 months drugs at a time.


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## Spear (5 Nov 2013)

Time said:


> Medical card patients can get a 3 month prescription but can only receive 1 months drugs at a time.



Interesting that it's different for medical card holders. Non-holders can get 6 months dispensed at a time. Why is there a restriction on medical card holders?


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## huskerdu (5 Nov 2013)

Spear said:


> Interesting that it's different for medical card holders. Non-holders can get 6 months dispensed at a time. Why is there a restriction on medical card holders?


 
Is it due to the dispensing charge, which must be charged every month ?

The same restriction exists if you are getting some of the cost paid by the state under the DPS


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## wednesday (5 Nov 2013)

What a crock!! In the UK it's £7.85 per item...it would be cheaper to head over the border collect 6 months worth on a private prescription and travel home than it would to get the tablets once a month in the South


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## STEINER (5 Nov 2013)

Some valid reasons have been given for the one month supply.

As someone who has been on complex meds in the past, I think one month is reasonable enough, with an open 3 month or 6 month prescription.

I think the cost of some prescriptions can be a factor, some monthly meds are expensive. I remember being prescribed a med that cost over €1,000 a month. (you would think at that price they could give it a nice taste, but no...)

Also, if an outpatient dies, I don't think any unused meds are available for use by another person, so thats a waste of those meds.

Also, some legitimate meds are much valued on the street.  For example, 6 months of oxycontin (oxy) would make a lot of happy faces when crushed up etc etc


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## RainyDay (6 Nov 2013)

wednesday said:


> What a crock!! In the UK it's £7.85 per item...it would be cheaper to head over the border collect 6 months worth on a private prescription and travel home than it would to get the tablets once a month in the South



But a UK private prescription would cost the full amount of meds, not just the UK prescription charge (which is only available to UK citizens I assume).


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## huskerdu (6 Nov 2013)

wednesday said:


> What a crock!! In the UK it's £7.85 per item...it would be cheaper to head over the border collect 6 months worth on a private prescription and travel home than it would to get the tablets once a month in the South


 
As RainyDay has said, its not true that you can get free meds in the UK and only pay the prescription charge, unless you are resident there. 

Also, its not clear from the nhs website that you can pick up 6 months worth of drugs and only pay one prescription charge.

If you are on 2 or more drugs, they say that the best value  ( for a UK resident) is to pay an £104 fee which covers all prescription charges. 

That's equivalent to €10 a month.


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## Spear (6 Nov 2013)

STEINER said:


> Some valid reasons have been given for the one month supply.
> 
> As someone who has been on complex meds in the past, I think one month is reasonable enough, with an open 3 month or 6 month prescription.
> 
> ...



This doesn't explain why there is a difference in limit for medical card holders.  If there are issues around cost, grey market, safety etc., why not then apply the same 1 month limit to private patients?

I still can't follow the logic for the limit of one month for medical card holders.  If it's to prop up the dispensing charge, why not alter that charge to a monthly basis instead of a per-script basis?


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## Time (6 Nov 2013)

Also a medical card may be removed from a person at any stage so by limiting things to a month by month basis they can stop an illegible person from getting drugs that they are not entitled to receive.


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## ciarok1 (7 Nov 2013)

For prescriptions a dispensing fee is charged per item - same charge irrespective of duration.

Pharmacies that refuse to dispense 6 months supply do this so they can charge 6 dispensing fees instead of one. *It is quite legal to dispense 6 months supply for most medicines* and some pharmacies (e.g. Tesco inhouse) will do this.

If they can (i.e. if they think your monthly expenditure will fall below the DPS reminbusement threshold of Eu144) most pharmacies will charge a prescription at a "private" rate - usually price + dispensing fee + 50% markup, which is much more expensive.

*Always ask for scripts to be filled at the DPS rate*. The responses can be interesting.


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## RainyDay (7 Nov 2013)

ciarok1 said:


> *Always ask for scripts to be filled at the DPS rate*. The responses can be interesting.


Thanks for the tip. I presume if you hand in your DPS card, and you get your DPS receipt, that is a good sign that you're getting the DPS rate?

Though the rate does seem to vary slightly between pharmacies...


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