Type 1: Prescription fine

catherinecherub · Feb 17, 2015

Advice from DUK which includes,

Why haven’t I heard about this before?
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) issues and renews medical exemption certificates. It took over issuing reminders in 2002. If you were registered for a certificate then or have been registered since then you should receive reminders about the need to have an up to date certificate. However, if you did not have a certificate in 2002 then you will not be on the NHS BSA’s system and you will not have received any reminder letters.

Likewise, if you have moved since the last time you registered and did not update them with your address then you will also not have received any reminders. It is down to pharmacists to check you have the certificate and given everyone who uses insulin or takes medicine for their diabetes is entitled to free prescriptions checking has not always been thorough.
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Living_with_diabetes/Free-prescriptions/

chubble30 · Feb 17, 2015

Yes you should have an exemption certificate no ifs and buts your responsibility to know just like you should be taking responsibility for your diabetes and not saying the doctor should have told me ...... but don't pay a fine fight it and let them go to court and then put your case that with all you had to do managing your diabetes you didn't know this then let them uphold the fine!!!! Not sure they even chase you for it I have had clients with fines from them that have been ignored and no more is ever heard.....................

Insulinman · Feb 17, 2015

ME thinks what with the NHS change's, Many not for the good! The PCT's gone/NOT gone? the 100s of new rules?
there are very very few people who know what the "HELL" is happening AND we all suffer because of it?
As Doctors are the most trusted, and they write out the Script's for Poison's Insulin Being Just One? DOC and the Pharmacy must Know
THE person using it ( MIGHT JUST BE A DIABETIC ) "AND" VAT & certificate free? But YES stamp on people who Con! But then you
have the people who are very ill but still have to PAY???? So NO I do NOT know the answer?

INSULINMAN still on a Pump (Free and filled with free Insulin) T.G

lollyann1 · Feb 17, 2015

rubold said:
OMG how petty and ridiculous. I've never paid for drug prescriptions since diagnosed, although I used to need to buy syringes and needles etc. before they started handing them out free to drug addicts and suddenly realised that it would be somewhat controversial for diabetics to still pay for them! I was asked by a pharmacist a couple of times to see my medical exemption certificate and just stated that I had never been issued with one and asked him how to get one, but he just stated that it was issued automatically by the local health authority. I've still never seen one,. but being over 60 I don't need one anymore.

I think it is so wrong that some people with Diabetes are being fined. When I first glanced through some of the the posts on this subject I did a double take - oh, this may happen to me until I remembered I am over 60 too.

lollyann1 · Feb 17, 2015

logindetails said:
If you haven't got a card, move to Wales - quickly

Nice one!

lollyann1 · Feb 17, 2015

Jimski said:
Hi all,

I have just received one in the post, for £124.15...needless to say I am not that happy about it. I was told by a lady on the phone a similar story to others here, you are entitled to free prescriptions but only if you have the medical exemption certificate. I have never been asked for one, and I have been diabetic since 1986 and with the NHS since 1992. The GP has never told me about one and as others have said the pharmacist has always just said "tick that box".

I was also told that the GP can back date it by 30 days, which considering my charge is for September is not that helpful as the letter is dated 24th November. I have never bucked the system knowingly, and would have preferred to receive a "warning" or "first offence" to resolve the issue, and be given the chance to back date it as required by the GP.

Agree that I should have read the prescription small print, but when it hasn't changed in so many years and there was sort of an implied waiver with no notice by GP, Pharmacist or the Business Services Authority it seems a bit rough.

I am going to write to my MP and the press I think. I will pay £1.00 now and depending on what happens will pay the rest in instalments, I'll think of it like a donation to a good cause anyway!! After all, in the grand scheme of things, £124.15 isn't a lot for the wonderful care I get at King's College Hospital and have had at Queen Mary's. Hopefully they will not back date any more, otherwise I will take it further!

Please do correct me if I am wrong, but I now remember reading details on the back of one of my prescription forms and I am pretty sure it stated that people with Diabetes are exempt, nothing was mentioned on the Form about having to produce an Exemption Certificate.

scottlemaitre · Feb 17, 2015

molivers73 said:
Hi I have just received a letter saying i have to pay a £96 fine for not having a valid medical exemption certificate. I was diagnosed Type 1 in 1998 and have never paid for prescriptions since. Nobody has ever told me about this. Has anyone else had the same thing and if so what was the outcome?

I had a letter as well but had an exemption card. I had recently move house and forgot to update registration. The man at the office updated my new address and cancelled fine. Happy days.

lollyann1 · Feb 17, 2015

PaulinaB said:
First time I heard about the exemption was when picking up a prescription that my local pharmacy. Pharmacist asked me to sign the prescription - I had no idea why, but I signed it (I tend to trust the person that dispenses my meds...). I must have looked very confused because he asked "you have the certificate, right?". Of course I didn't! So he told me to go to my gp (next door) and fill out the form.

No one at the hospital clinic told me that I need a certificate (or even can have free meds) and my gp only asked me a few months later if I filled the form. I was eligible to free meds even before diabetes diagnosis due to other conditions and I was paying for all my prescriptions!

If not for the pharmacist I would probably be facing a fine myself as well! I have to say, there's a terrible lack of information to the patients.

I was diagnosed a couple of years ago and, like you, nobody at the Diabetes Clinic at my local Hospital (Clinic closed now, due to lack of funding!) mentioned anything whatsoever that I needed an Exemption Certificate. Therefore, even certain professionals 'assumed' that Diabetics got free prescriptions.

lollyann1 · Feb 17, 2015

donnellysdogs said:
Exemption Certificates and Fines
You can get all your NHS prescriptions free if you have a valid medical exemption certificate because you have:
a permanent fistula (for example, caecostomy, colostomy, laryngos-tomy or ileostomy) which needs continuous surgical dressing or an appliance;
a form of hypoadrenalism (for example, Addison’s Disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential;
diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism;
diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone;
hypoparathyroidism;
myasthenia gravis;
myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism which needs thyroid hormone replacement);
epilepsy which needs continuous anticonvulsive therapy;
a continuing physical disability which means you cannot go out without the help of another person; or
cancer and are undergoing treatment for:
cancer;
the effects of cancer; or,
the effects of cancer treatment.

Pleased you quoted that because that is what I read when I was first diagnosed. If you ask me I feel the Business Services have pulled Diabetes patients out of a hat to target because we are part of such a huge potential financial bale-out for them!

Will have to look at other googles and see whether other "diseased" persons are going through the same..

Jayne98 · Feb 17, 2015

molivers73 said:
Hi I have just received a letter saying i have to pay a £96 fine for not having a valid medical exemption certificate. I was diagnosed Type 1 in 1998 and have never paid for prescriptions since. Nobody has ever told me about this. Has anyone else had the same thing and if so what was the outcome?

I have just this last week been dealing with the same thing. Don't ignore it, I have been emailing them because of a disability I have trouble with phones. They are very good a emailing back quickly. My argument was I'd never had an exemption card so when did it change and why wasn't I informed. In between emailing I applied for the exemption card which I received back within a week. I went into details in the last email telling them everything I thought they might need. Received email back this morning with their apologies and told me the case was closed. Don't give up.

Pipp · Feb 17, 2015

lollyann1 said:
Please do correct me if I am wrong, but I now remember reading details on the back of one of my prescription forms and I am pretty sure it stated that people with Diabetes are exempt, nothing was mentioned on the Form about having to produce an Exemption Certificate.

Yes, you are wrong

anna29 · Feb 17, 2015

At my local city hospital the pharmacy do ask me for my
proof .
Hence I hand over both my certificate AND medical exemption card .

These have my own unique number of granted medical exemption on them .
The pharmacy staff always write this number down on my prescriptions too .

My hospital are very strict with all the rules and regulations .
So everything has to be in order when in collection of free prescriptions there .

Every 5 years I get sent both a paper certificate and a plastic medical exemption card.
These are dated for a valid 5 years of time .

shelleyh · Feb 17, 2015

I have also received a fine of £96 and given 4 weeks to pay before another penalty amount is added. I have been a T1 diabetic since 1976 and have never received or been challenged about an exemption certificate. I called the telephone number on the penalty and was met by a most unhelpful person who merely stated that I had fraudulently signed the prescription. Having paid NI all my working life and not being of a dishonest nature, I took offence to this. I stated that I would be willing to pay for the prescription but the fine was, in my opinion, excessive. They were not willing to budge and offered nothing more. To be honest, I would rather pay for my prescriptions than to have T1 diabetes but that sadly is not the case. I have paid my fine and contacted my GP who was surprised that this had happened and promptly ordered me a new exception certificate.
My advice would be to pay the fine as you will have little success with appealing against it but spare a thought, all you policy makers and changers, for us pre 2002 exemption certificate people who have never received a form, renewal or reminder.
Some of us have a life to get on with!

Spiker · Feb 17, 2015

catherinecherub said:
Advice from DUK which includes,

Why haven’t I heard about this before?
However, if you did not have a certificate in 2002 then you will not be on the NHS BSA’s system and you will not have received any reminder letters.

Likewise, if you have moved since the last time you registered and did not update them with your address then you will also not have received any reminders.

So it's a hands down win for those who dodged the rules in 2002 and a punitive own goal for those who followed the rules for some (but not all) of the last 12 years.

Wrong on so many levels...

Spiker · Feb 17, 2015

shelleyh said:
I called the telephone number on the penalty and was met by a most unhelpful person who merely stated that I had fraudulently signed the prescription.

Strictly speaking this was probably true, as you probably ticked the box claiming to hold a current valid medical exemption certificate, which you probably knew to be a false statement.

Heathenlass · Feb 17, 2015

Everyone at random who makes a claim for free prescriptions. They are not targeting diabetics specifically

Signy

Spiker · Feb 17, 2015

catherinecherub said:
It is down to pharmacists to check you have the certificate

Hence the record numbers of fines being issued to pharmacists by the NHS BSA?

Er, not. :-/

tim2000s · Feb 17, 2015

Spiker said:
So it's a hands down win for those who dodged the rules in 2002 and a punitive own goal for those who followed the rules for some (but not all) of the last 12 years.

Wrong on so many levels...

Not quite... If you didn't have a certificate in 2002, and you signed a form in 2014, chances are you'll get an unpleasant letter.

And pharmacists are asked to check the certificate. If it isn't shown, they are instructed to write 'not seen' on the form and still dispense the medicines.

shelleyh · Feb 17, 2015

Spiker said:
Strictly speaking this was probably true, as you probably ticked the box claiming to hold a current valid medical exemption certificate, which you probably knew to be a false statement.

[/QUOTE]
Which is where they have you and you have no defence because they have changed the rules you knew nothing about! That is why I had no alternative but to pay.....

Spiker · Feb 17, 2015

tim2000s said:
Not quite... If you didn't have a certificate in 2002, and you signed a form in 2014, chances are you'll get an unpleasant letter.

I seem to have evaded the net by failing to renew sometime around 2000 / 2001 and/or changing address several times since then.

Type 1: Prescription fine

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