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Free medication?

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  • 28-01-2010 9:53pm
    #1
    noah45
    Registered Users Posts: 425 ✭✭


    I read on another Irish board that some people didn't have to pay to get their antidepressants if the prescription is written by a psychiatrist at the local mental health clinic. These people don't have medical cards.

    I attend a psychiatrist at local clinic and always get my prescrition from him, but always pay to have it filled.

    Anyone know what the story is?


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    #2
    sam34
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,073 ✭✭✭sam34


    thats not true at all.

    you pay for your meds if you dont have a medical card.

    nobody pays over the monthly threshold - i think that may now be €120, but you have to pay up to that.

    having them prescribed by a psychiatrist makes no difference


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    #3
    locum-motion
    Registered Users Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    sam34 wrote: »
    thats not true at all.

    you pay for your meds if you dont have a medical card.

    nobody pays over the monthly threshold - i think that may now be €120, but you have to pay up to that.

    having them prescribed by a psychiatrist makes no difference

    Actually, it is true, Sam.

    Many years ago, the old Eastern Regional Health Board (before the HSE was established) decided that they would pay for medications prescribed in the Community Psychiatric Clinics, regardless of whether the patient had a medical card or not.
    Initially, the patient had to take the script to a specific local pharmacy; it the case of the Clinic at JMCH in Blanch, for example, it was the Unicare branch in Blanch.
    Then, unsurprisingly, other pharmacies wanted in on it, so it was extended so that the patient could take the script to any pharmacy in the ERHB area.
    The pharmacy was paid a sort of intermediate amount; more than they would have been paid for a medical card patient, less than for a DPS/LTI patient.
    The patient didn't have to pay, even if they didn't have a medical card.
    This arrangement was always outside the formal contract that pharmacies have with the HSE, and never operated outside the ERHB area.
    For a few years now, I've been waiting to hear in the news about a patient outside Dublin suing the Govt for discrimination, but it never happened.
    The system's in the process of disintegrating right now, though. I wouldn't be surprised if it's scrapped completely in the next couple of months.


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    #4
    sam34
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,073 ✭✭✭sam34


    thanks for that, learn something new every day!

    i never worked in the EHB, so i guess thats why i never heard of it


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