1 mile rule

[Nik442]

Hi, has anyone else fallen foul of this reside within 1 mile rule of a surgery's dispensary then medicines can't be dispensed from there?

Okay, there are ways around it but it's very inconvenient.

Red tape.............................

Nik

 

[lovinglife]

I have never heard of this - how strange!- I am not in my village GP practice - but most of my neighbours and friends are - my neighbour is in the village surgery and our gardens back onto the surgery/dispensary car park - you really just have to climb over the wall to get there

 

[Nik442]

I took this up with the dispensary team leader who told me unfortunately the government set out this rule. If patients live within a mile of a Pharmacy ie high street chain, a Dispensing Practice are not allowed to dispense to these patients.

This rule is 100 years old!

My problem is I have to work for a living and the high street chain is closed by the time I have commuted home whereas the surgery is not. There is an e-petition which is trying to get this rule discussed in Parliament.

Nik

 

[noblehead]

Never heard of this one, I have a pharmacy a mile up the road but choose to use one 3 miles away as it's much better service.

 

[CarbsRok]

http://www.psnc.org.uk/pages/rural_issues.html here you go have a read of the info in link.

 

[anna29]

Hi All.

Oh I haven't heard of this either .
Our home is 'less' than a quarter mile away from the chemist.
I use - with a fantastic service - I must add and say :thumbup:

Anna.

 

[Superchip]

If this is true then I have been breaking this dubious law for 30 years !

So the loony left existed 100 years ago !

No blooming wonder we have a shambles of a health service.

Gor Blimey

Superchip

 

[Sid Bonkers]

If I am reading this right the OP is saying that her/his (sorry) GP has been dispensing their medicines and are now saying that as they live nearer than 1 mile to a chemists then they will have to get their medicines dispensed there in future.

This really surprised me as I never knew that doctors could dispense medicines anyway I thought only a pharmacist could.

Personally I would choose the services of a good pharmacist over a doctor to dispense my meds any day, pharmacists know a lot more about drugs than any doctor especially about what drugs can not be taken with other drugs (contra indicated) etc.

Not sure I would trust a GP to prescribe my drugs and dispense them isnt it always a good idea to have a double check in place with meds so that mistakes are not made?

Dispensing chemist every time for me thanks :thumbup:

 

[Nik442]

If I am reading this right the OP is saying that her/his (sorry) GP has been dispensing their medicines and are now saying that as they live nearer than 1 mile to a chemists then they will have to get their medicines dispensed there in future.

This really surprised me as I never knew that doctors could dispense medicines anyway I thought only a pharmacist could.

Personally I would choose the services of a good pharmacist over a doctor to dispense my meds any day, pharmacists know a lot more about drugs than any doctor especially about what drugs can not be taken with other drugs (contra indicated) etc.

Not sure I would trust a GP to prescribe my drugs and dispense them isnt it always a good idea to have a double check in place with meds so that mistakes are not made?

Dispensing chemist every time for me thanks :thumbup:

No, the GP isn't dispensing them personally. From reading online the reason the 1 mile rule was introduced, 100 years ago, was so doctors and patients couldnt collude on medicines. In the surgery I attend there is a dispensary and also a high street pharmacy which is bolted on to the surgery. The pharmacy closes earlier than the dispensary. I can pick up the repeat prescription from the surgery's dispensary after 6pm but not the medicine as I live too close and by then the bolt on pharmacy is closed. Whatever happened to patient choice.

Nik

 

[viviennem]

Both my practice's surgeries dispense, as many of their patients (including me) live miles away from a pharmacy. It would be extremely difficult for me to reach a pharmacy if I didn't have a car. (Yes, I have a bus pass - now can I have a bus to go with it, please?)

Have you tried explaining the problem to the pharmacist and asking if you could collect your prescription from the surgery? or somewhere else convenient? Most of our village shops (the ones that are left :roll: ) have a collection service for medications, and I know that the pharmacy in our local town deliver medications for collection to the village shops, as do the GP surgeries.

As far as I know all dispensing practices have to have at least one member of staff who, while not as qualified as an independent pharmacist, will have had a dispensing training course. Also, no prescription can be released until it has been checked by a GP.

Viv 8)

 

[catherinecherub]

I took this up with the dispensary team leader who told me unfortunately the government set out this rule. If patients live within a mile of a Pharmacy ie high street chain, a Dispensing Practice are not allowed to dispense to these patients.

This rule is 100 years old!

My problem is I have to work for a living and the high street chain is closed by the time I have commuted home whereas the surgery is not. There is an e-petition which is trying to get this rule discussed in Parliament.

Nik

I don't know if you have any supermarkets with pharmacies near you. They mostly have extended hours. I have used a Sainsbury one very late in the evening after having a G.P. home visit for a sick relative.
When I lived in a village, although I had to travel to the G.P., (three miles), my prescriptions were always dispensed there by a Pharmacist. Now I live two miles away from another surgery and there are no dispensing facilities.

 

[jopar]

I've never heard of the rule either, and totally confused by the set up never come across a surgery with own dispensary and bolt on pharmacy!

I can only imagine that if they are using this rule, the purpose has to be that the surgery covers a town and rural area with is reasonably large, so it carries a limited dispensary for patients who when the pharmacy was closed would find it difficult to return at a later time/date to pick up their prescriptions, so stocks would be very limited.

If the actual pharmacy is a blot on to the surgery, I would suspect that the surgery dispensary actually get their stock from here, and the pharmacy will have an 'repeat prescription' ordering facility. So I would ask the pharmacy (and if necessary your surgery) if you order your repeat via the pharmacy, that they pass it over to the dispensary for you to pick up..

If not, I think I would pick up my script, then pop it into my nearest pharmacy to where I worked...

 

[Paul_c]

but, but, but... I'm confused... I have 3 pharmacies all within a mile of both me and my practice... one of them is a bolt on to my practice, the other is 100 yards away from the practice... the last one is 100 yards away from my flat... ***!!!

 

[angieG]

Our Doctors Surgery dispenses prescriptions as the nearest chemists are about 8 miles away. When I moved out of the village to an area about 8 miles away they tried to tell me I could not get my prescriptions from them anymore as we had a Chemist in our village. When I pointed out that I actually lived nearly 3 miles away from it despite being inside the parish they relented and said I could still deal with them.
Our surgery also dispatches repeat prescriptions to the Post Offices in the neighbouring villages so that folks (especially the elderly) can pick up their medication from there.
Is there an opt out system though as I would have thought you could just collect your script to get it fulfilled elsewhere.

Hope you get it sorted okay.
Angie

 

[Hobs]

An ancient rule that is a relic of a very aged past, but still those of us who struggle to walk more than a few difficult yards still have to make it to a chemist that might be miles away from a nearby surgery dispensary.

 

[viviennem]

I think when it was first invented it was to make sure that the high-street pharmacies didn't go out of business! The doctors and the pharmacies were in direct competition.

Now surgeries are only allowed to dispense if they have many patients who live more than a mile away from a chemist/pharmacist. My rural practice is allowed to dispense; we have only 2 pharmacies and they are in small towns about 20 miles apart, with a limited bus service that runs betweeen the two and misses most of the small villages. The practice my cousin worked at in the middle of Leeds, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to dispense at all.

The government are presently trying to cut down on dispensing surgeries as much as possible. Too expensive!

Viv 8)

 

[pippin2345]

This rule is absolute tosh!!!!! Our surgery has a dispensary attached(which can be used outside surgery times) and we live inside the distance of 1 mile and have no trouble with getting out bits dispensed. There is also a chemist within 100 yards that has a dispensary and that also will dispense a prescription to anyone inside/outside of the 1 mile rule. Which planet are these people on? :lolno:

 

[Paul Oak]

It is a stupid rule, the local Boots is actually in the same building as the surgery, and the same delivery truck delivers to both, and as I live more than a mile away can use either!

 

[viviennem]

It is a stupid rule, the local Boots is actually in the same building as the surgery, and the same delivery truck delivers to both, and as I live more than a mile away can use either!

I think you'll find that it is just this sort of situation where the NHS intends to stop the surgery dispensing.

Viv 8)

 

[Nik442]

On my commute home I bypass an urban area so I will take a 3 mile detour to collect my medicines from a pharmacy that I've earmarked and is open until 6.30pm. I'm pleased to say my GP's surgery dispensary did dispense me medicine in an out of hours emergency (as they must) but alas not a repeat prescription.

Nik