Nhs contractors and prescriptions..

[BettyBooHoo!]

About 90% of prescriptions are exempt. This DOES NOT MEAN that 90% of

people don't have to pay.

 

Many illnesses that require you to have multiple prescriptions, also entitle you to free ones;

People who have to pay but have bought a prepayment certificate, have their prescriptions listed in the "exempt" percentage because they didn't pay £7.20 on collection;

Residents in nursing homes, mostly over 60, tend to have their prescriptions written out a week at a time, thus collecting four times as many prescriptions as a patient at home who is paying for the same drugs;

People whose prescriptions are free will collect a prescription for paracetamol, where those who must pay will buy the tablets for £1 instead and their prescription won't appear in the statistics at all.

 

There are other reasons, as well, all of which mean that the 90% of prescriptions "not paid" probably only equates to somewhere between 50% and 70% of people who do not have to pay. When you further bear in mind that almost half the population of the country are either children or pensioners, the figure becomes completely non-outrageous.

 

We've already covered that above!