Type 1: Prescription fine

[molivers73]

it was done in capitals to get the point across, having read earlier posts which clearly stated the same thing that I did and was being ignored by people who had been fined I thought that tough love was required with no messing about so I put it into layman's terms that could be understood ie you wont get the fines dropped and they wont waiver the fine.

You obviously haven't read all the posts......

 

[molivers73]

Not knowing is no defence of the law. Surely you read what you sign? It's better to eat humble pie and see if you can be let off than having to cough up for the prescription. You are lucky they haven't asked for money going back to 1998 when you were diagnosed. As what you have done it's lucky you haven't been summoned and convicted of fraud.

Still haven't received an apology for the above reply. 1. I was never informed I need to renew. 2. I asked my GP if need a physical certificate and was told it was renewed automatically. 3. I have never been asked to produce said certificate in a pharmacy in 17 years. 4. I am on a repeat prescription done online. 5. When first diagnosed in 1998 I was not told about an exemption certificate. 6. The fine has been waived so how is it fraud?

 

[Robinredbreast]

your absolutely right people due have other conditions to deal with in my case I have diabetes type 1 for 40 years, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic neuropathy, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, hyperparathyroidism, carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and arms, right leg and ankle was shattered in accident which has resulted in mal-union of ankle and talus bones which I had 2 external fixators for 7 months and 5 operations to fix, acute lymphoedema to right ankle and leg, but even with all these problems I still work full time and renew my medical exemption certificate and not get charged by the NHS. so yes people due have other issues and like me they live with them. It just annoys me when people take no responsibility for managing them selves for either medical or administration purposes.

I have personally found that maybe a very small minority disregards the obvious and, as you say, take no responsibility, this does happen.
I have my exemption card in my purse, but I remember once I didn't have it in my purse, I remembered I left it in another coat pocket as I had a lot of things to carry at that time, pharmacy were okay as they know me very well, but with another chemist or pharmacy, it may have been a problem. But I am not in the habit of doing that, it was a genuine slip up.
Yes, we walk around as though we are on top of things, many members have mental health or social problems, depression, OCD, ADHD Manic depression and bipolar, to name but a few. We do make slip up's, but if it keeps on being repeated then these people should be made to pay the fine and tow the line, it's only fair after all.
It's good news to see that a few have had their fine waiver.

RRB

 

[CarbsRok]

Still haven't received an apology for the above reply. 1. I was never informed I need to renew. 2. I asked my GP if need a physical certificate and was told it was renewed automatically. 3. I have never been asked to produce said certificate in a pharmacy in 17 years. 4. I am on a repeat prescription done online. 5. When first diagnosed in 1998 I was not told about an exemption certificate. 6. The fine has been waived so how is it fraud?

Considering that the post is now out of context due to your offensive remarks/posts to me being removed, you can go whistle.
All your justification stated does not hold water anyway. So stop passing the buck all the time.

 

[catherinecherub]

Still haven't received an apology for the above reply. 1. I was never informed I need to renew. 2. I asked my GP if need a physical certificate and was told it was renewed automatically. 3. I have never been asked to produce said certificate in a pharmacy in 17 years. 4. I am on a repeat prescription done online. 5. When first diagnosed in 1998 I was not told about an exemption certificate. 6. The fine has been waived so how is it fraud?

I think we need to move on in this thread. People in glass houses.............
This thread did get ugly at one time, some posts were removed and there is no need for it to happen again. If you have personal gripes with other posters then please try and resolve it via PM or leave alone. People get fed up with threads being derailed and people will be banned from this thread if it continues.

 

[noblehead]

A week ago the view-count for this thread was 33,000, it's now 41,000, so on average it seems to be viewed 1,000 times per day

I do wonder if that daily view-count is due to a regular flare up of the same "circular topic of conversation", which seems to start more often recently with a post from a "newbie", and whether each flare up is fuel for another flare up later on.

The thread in most parts has been constructive with some good information and feedback, if it prevents only a few people from having to go through the fines upheaval then it has served its purpose, that is why it will remain a sticky and will not be removed in the near future.

However as Catherinecheub has said earlier, if arguments continue then people will be blocked from contributing further to the thread.

 

[iHs]

Ive only ever needed to show proof that I was exempt from paying prescription charges when going to a pharmacy for the first time with a prescription or by going to a pharmacy that I dont normally use.

For the past 2 years I havent needed to sign the back of my prescriptions at all as my pharmacist has done so on my behalf before giving me my medication, but for the past month, Ive now needed to sign. I sometimes go to a pharmacy to get something and watch what goes on at the counter and often if busy, the pharmacy assistant will just ask if someone needs to pay for their prescription and if they dont need to pay, can they quickly sign the back of the prescription form and tick the required box. It would be a very good idea for these prescription forms to have Bold writing on the back to draw attention to important matters so that people would read what they were signing. Pharmacies are just as guilty as anyone else and they know it as well but use all the red tape to excuse them

This is clear case of IT technology going wrong as the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing.......serious lack of C o m m u n i c a t i o n (said in French accent) . The NHSBSA should never have allowed so many unpaid prescriptions to fall through the net like they have done and it beggers belief what their staff have got up to during their employment........Its understandable that the white credit card size exemption certificate which just shows someones name and certificate number with a valid from and expire date doesnt get updated when people move address as the old address isnt printed on the card reminding people to update to the new address. Again this could easily be fixed with an address printed on the card. Also alll pharmacies should have a database that can be looked at to see if someone is exempt and has a valid certificate number before dispensing a prescription. If this had been done, then none of what has been discussed on this thread would have taken place..

 

[catherinecherub]

I was collecting my prescription this morning, not diabetes related and paid for by Prescription Payment Certificate , which I am always asked to produce, and had a word with the counter assistant about the fines. She was very non committal and said if people sign the back then it is their responsibility, not ours. Did not have time to speak to the pharmacist.

Seems the pharmacy are equally to blame if this is a general response or it could be that she has had no instructions to the contrary. Wonder why it is important to see my PPC and not Medical Exemption Certificates?

 

[mike@conisbrough]

^ I more-or-less agree, but the problem is very succinct

Although the onus to renew the medical exemption certificate is on the person holding the exemption certificate, if it is not a legal requirement to hold a valid exemption certificate when ticking box E, instead there is a regulation for the pharmacy to check and to advise.

The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 unambiguously defines the procedure that pharmacies should follow, and many pharmacies (all the pharmacies that I have ever used) are not following the NHS regulations.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/349/schedule/4/part/2/made

edit: I think that covers the understanding of the situation that has evolved in this thread ...... as succinctly as possible.

I must be getting word blindness but I cannot find anything to say the pharmacist is responsible for checking / advising about exemption certificates.

Could you please indicate which paragraph from Schedule 4 Part 2 is applicable.

 

[caretaker]

section 7

hope you got it right
I'm sure you have well done. brian
fingers crossed

 

[mike@conisbrough]

section 7

Thanks.

 

[softgirl123]

hi said i would let

Just a quick reminder to everybody that there is no law saying you have to pay for your prescription when it is issued to you at the pharmacy. So if you get a penalty charge notice, ask them on what basis they are charging you (or fining you, if you prefer, though it's not a fine). There is nothing to stop you saying that you simply haven't paid for it yet, and there is no legislation in place to charge you for late payments - it's not quite the same as overstaying your time in a car park.

Don't pay a penny if you are entitled, but if you have't obtained the correct documentation, such as the certificate, pay for the one prescription. Once it's paid they have no reason to charge you for anything.

I repeat, there is NOTHING to say you must have paid for your prescription at the time you received the medication so basically they're screwed if they try to take you to court later for the unpaid charge, because they have nothing to charge you for.

Incidentally, as for signing the form, I never have - most pharmacies just ask me if I pay for my prescriptions and then sign it themselves (I buy the annual prepayment card as I have to pay for mine). I don't know what they have signed, so where's the proof I didn't actually pay for it? Again, you don't have to prove you paid, there is no legislation that says you do!

hi said i would pay for prescriptionfor having an out of date mec.they still r demanding the penalty.any advice.

 

[Fujifilm]

It's all well and good going over the argument that you had no certificate therefore you were in the wrong which is technically correct. what is being overlooked here is like many diabetics on here I got diagnosed a long time ago. Nobody mentioned certificates or anything, in my case I went to the chemist with my prescription said I have been diagnosed as diabetic and told I now get free prescriptions.

The chemist told me to tick medical exemption box and that's what I did for the next twenty years! I assumed (wrongly) that as a type 1 diabetic that I was on some kind of register or certified to claim free prescriptions.

It was only five years ago that I was asked for my excemption card, I asked the obvious question what card? I then applied for one, in August 2014 it expired, I filled in a form and posted with a covering letter to my GP and assumed it was being processed. Forgot about it. It's only when my Mum mentioned the fines that I chased it up, they had no record of receiving it! My GP says he sent it. Even though I have proof of sending it, my GP saying he received letter and form and sent it, the reality is I may get fined because I signed for six months worth of prescriptions with no certificate.

This is one crazy situation.

 

[tim2000s]

section 7

Brian, as far as I can see, as long as they have asked and stated that no exemption certificate was seen (which has happened to me many times), that's the limit of their responsibility, or am I missing something?

 

[Spiker]

None of this is "get out of jail free". These are pleas in mitigation.
Even if and when the pharmacist is at fault, that doesn't mean the patient isn't at fault. Two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[mike@conisbrough]

If the flack starts flying at Pharmacists because of all the confusion I can see them becoming very militant in their attitude and will do everything by the book with ALL the inconveniences that may occur.

 

[iHs]

If the flack starts flying at Pharmacists because of all the confusion I can see them becoming very militant in their attitude and will do everything by the book with ALL the inconveniences that may occur.

Sorry, but what inconveniences??? For everyone who uses a regular pharmacist to dispense their prescriptions, an agreement to use EPS has already been signed for by the person. That is why loads of people just phone their pharmacist or hand in their repeat prescription to them in order for the pharmacist to deal with the GP and not the patient. Until just very recently, many repeat prescriptions were dispensed in a bag and just handed to the person concerned without even signing the back of the form. The pharmacist just took it for granted that the person was exempt when they should have asked if the person had a valid exemption card and was it still in date and hadnt expired. When I have signed the back of my prescriptions, the pharmacy assistant just asks 'are you exempt from paying prescription charges' and if so 'can you tick this box and sign at the bottom'. They very rarely give anyone time to actually read what they were signing because of the queue of people waiting to be served behind them.

I have had words with my pharmacy and have insisted that they keep a database register of everyone's exemption card number with the expiry date so that these so called fines can not happen again !! There is also no reason why the exemption card number cannot be entered onto someone's medical records by GP surgery staff so that when a prescription is done, the exemption card number is under the NHS number on the prescription.

 

[mike@conisbrough]

... snip ...

I have had words with my pharmacy and have insisted that they keep a database register of everyone's exemption card number with the expiry date so that these so called fines can not happen again !! There is also no reason why the exemption card number cannot be entered onto someone's medical records by GP surgery staff so that when a prescription is done, the exemption card number is under the NHS number on the prescription.

Good luck with that, let us know how much they invoice you for.

 

[iHs]

My pharmacy agreed and thought it was a good idea and would save a lot of u necessary hassle

 

[Maelstrom]

Seems there will be a database by 2018

http://www.thegoodhealthsuite.co.uk...ent-database-to-check-prescription-exemptions

Found a discussion from a pharmacy point of view

http://www.pharmacy-forum.co.uk/pha...ecking-prevent-prescription-charge-fraud.html

Now call me cynical but it looks like the current situation with penalty charges seems to be to try and rake in as much as they can before the data base goes live