Longest Duration Prescription?

Tails142

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but closest I could find to a general health!

My doctor gave me a prescription for my asthma inhalers, it was a 12 month prescription. When I went to get it filled today the pharmacist said that the longest duration prescription allowed by law was 6 months when I was collecting them. I didnt think much of it and just figured I'd try my luck next month at a different pharmacy!

Until I got home and realised he hadnt put the prescription in the bag!!

So anyone have any details on this? Is the longest prescription allowed 6 months?

Should I ring up and give him a bollicking for taking the prescription? Or is the prescription never really my property and he's justified in seizing it.

I'd say why my doc gave me a 12 month one was because he was sick of seeing me come to him twice a year for the past 14 years!!! Would appreciate any info if anyone can provide.

mike65

Pharmacistys like to look after such paperwork, I think they don't trust us to look after it (they may be right, I lost my old green book).

Mike.

angeldelight

The pharmacist was correct, the maximum validity for a prescription is 6 months. The doctor may not have been thinking when they wrote the prescription or they might not know. As for why the pharmacist didn't give the script back to you, was this the 6th installment? if so he has to retain it by law. Otherwise he might have forgotten to ask if you wanted to keep it on file and automatically has put it aside for you, go back and ask for it back if that's the case

Tails142

I should point out that this was the 4th dispensing on the prescription though I got it in decemeber 7 months ago.

I should also point out that I said I was going on holidays and could I get a second dispensing to which he obliged - so I'm sorted for a bit longer

But its just annoying as it means taking another half day off work and another 50 euro to the doc to wheeze into a tube, TELL the doc what my prescription is, have a 15 minute chat with him about general well being and how the family is getting on so it feels I'm getting value for money, and do it all again 6 months later. Pain in the ass, thought I was getting a good deal, especially as inhalers are available over the counter in a lot of countries

Tails142

angeldelight wrote: »

The pharmacist was correct, the maximum validity for a prescription is 6 months. The doctor may not have been thinking when they wrote the prescription or they might not know. As for why the pharmacist didn't give the script back to you, was this the 6th installment? if so he has to retain it by law. Otherwise he might have forgotten to ask if you wanted to keep it on file and automatically has put it aside for you, go back and ask for it back if that's the case

Thanks for the info, do you know if its dispensings or months?

Because usually my 'months' prescription would actually last me 2 to 3 months, so what I had been doing before was building them up and getting them each month but I found they were going out of date then which was a waste of money.

robinph

There must have been something in the latest issue of the Pharmacist Monthly newsletter* about this as I got queried on it when I went to pick up my last repeat bundle of drugs from them saying that I needed a new one.

I have a long term prescription book which was last properly filled in by a GP in 2003. There are then a couple of crossings out and additional items added to the list and it re-signed but all still on the same page that originally had the 2003 scrawls on. The last of those was probably about April last year though.

Really not liking the idea of paying them another fifty notes for them to do the difficult task of coping everything from one page to the next though. Will have to wait until I get a cold or something then I'll pay them to tell me to take some Lemsip and stay in bed.

* Entirely fictional publication

angeldelight

Tails142 wrote: »

Thanks for the info, do you know if its dispensings or months?

Because usually my 'months' prescription would actually last me 2 to 3 months, so what I had been doing before was building them up and getting them each month but I found they were going out of date then which was a waste of money.

Essentially the prescription cannot be dispensed more than 6 months after the date that's on it. The inhalers fall under the legal classification of S1B medicines so a prescription for them can be repeated according to certain rules while e.g. an antibiotic is usually S1A so the prescription can only be dispensed once.

The rules for dispensing S1B is essentially : If the number of installations is stated on the prescription (i.e. repeat x 6) then the inhalers can be dispensed up to a maximum of 6 times at intervals deemed appropriate by the pharmacist with due regard to the dosage etc. e.g. if an inhaler usually lasts 5 weeks then it can be dispensed every 5 weeks up to a maximum of 6 inhalers. if the interval is stated on the prescription

But if the interval is stated i.e. Ventolin inhaler x 1/12 then it can only be dispensed at that interval up until the 6 month legal validity period.

You don't have to collect the prescription every month, just get it dispensed when you need it - essentially because the maximum prescription validity is 6 months you'll need to see the GP twice a year whatever way you do it.

Think I may not have answered your question there sorry

angeldelight

I'm not sure what the deal about the LTI book is, does the prescription have to be written every 6 months?? In the case of asthma inhalers they would be on individual prescriptions but I dunno about the LTI


I probably should though

robinph

The LTI prescription book does say on it somewhere that each page is only valid for 6 months, that hasn't stopped the GP's being lazy when I give them a new fifty though and not bothering with using a new page and just add the change to the previous page. The asthma stuff isn't covered for free from the LTI book but I just get charged for the lines on the prescription that are not covered and get the rest for free.

tbh

yeah I get this a lot as well, I just make sure that i get the doc to update when I'm going for my six-monthly checkups.

littlefriend

Just ring the Dr's and ask for a repeat script - should be ok if its your regular medication