Out of Medication...soon

sfc501

Hello,

I'm a visitor from the UK and will soon run out of my medication.
My stay here in Ireland has been extended for three months.

How do I go about getting a prescription for more tablets?

Many thanks........

Vorsprung

A UK prescription might be accepted in Irish pharmacies, some of the pharmacists here might clarify. If your regular doctor is open to it, a repeat prescription could be faxed to a pharmacy here. The whole thing might depend on the type of medication involved and whether a doctor needs to see you before it can be prescribed again. If your UK GP isn't in a position to provide a repeat script, you would need to see a GP here (just ring any GP and ask if they're taking new patients). It might be worth getting a hold of your old records before you do this.

Might be worth asking a pharmacy local to you if they'll take UK scripts.

PS Moving this to the main forum.

sfc501

thanks for your advice, most appreciated.
I'll take a trip to the pharmacy soon,
I'll post their response........

Kurtosis

For the majority of medicines (only exclusion being medicines containing controlled drugs), a prescription written by a prescribed registered in an EU country is valid to be dispensed here. So if you have a current prescription from your doctor back in the UK (written in the last 6 months), a pharmacy here should be able to dispense it for you no problem. As Vorsprung said, best thing to do is visit a pharmacy and they should be able to give you information specific to your case.

sfc501

Penguin88 thank you so much for your informed reply, it really is appreciated.
I'll post what happens for future help on this matter.

Marcusm

Have you thought of the cost implications? Is it an expensive drug? Might it be possible to have it faxed to an NI pharmacy and collected from there. A UK standard prescription charge (c£9) can be much less than the full cost of 3 months medicine in Ireland (easily £100s for certain drugs).

L1011

Marcusm wrote: »

Have you thought of the cost implications? Is it an expensive drug? Might it be possible to have it faxed to an NI pharmacy and collected from there. A UK standard prescription charge (c£9) can be much less than the full cost of 3 months medicine in Ireland (easily £100s for certain drugs).

If they use their NHS card (in lieu of an EHIC) they should be issued a medical card prescription.

I'm not 100% sure a NHS or NHS Scotland prescription is any use with the HSC in NI at that; however I no longer (thankfully!) have access all all the various UK prescription reimbursement data since I changed job.

Marcusm

MYOB wrote: »

If they use their NHS card (in lieu of an EHIC) they should be issued a medical card prescription.

I'm not 100% sure a NHS or NHS Scotland prescription is any use with the HSC in NI at that; however I no longer (thankfully!) have access all all the various UK prescription reimbursement data since I changed job.

I'm not sure I've ever seen an NHS card despite living in the UK for 17 years - not disputing their existence. NI prescriptions are free of charge even to visiting NHS users from E, W or S.

L1011

Marcusm wrote: »

I'm not sure I've ever seen an NHS card despite living in the UK for 17 years - not disputing their existence. NI prescriptions are free of charge even to visiting NHS users from E, W or S.

The physical cards do exist, but realistically the NHS number suffices - if you don't know that your UK surgery definitely will.

You don't need an EHIC from the UK and vice versa for us over there although if you have an EHIC it should have the NHS# on it.

locum-motion

Marcusm wrote: »

Have you thought of the cost implications? Is it an expensive drug? Might it be possible to have it faxed to an NI pharmacy and collected from there. A UK standard prescription charge (c£9) can be much less than the full cost of 3 months medicine in Ireland (easily £100s for certain drugs).

Have you considered the fact that a fax is not a prescription?

RobFowl

Marcusm wrote: »

I'm not sure I've ever seen an NHS card despite living in the UK for 17 years - not disputing their existence. NI prescriptions are free of charge even to visiting NHS users from E, W or S.

It's the card with your named gp, you details incl ni number and the long nhs number too. You get it when you register with a gp (or did when I worked there)

Marcusm

locum-motion wrote: »

Have you considered the fact that a fax is not a prescription?

'twas one of the Health Sciences moderators who introduced the concept of faxing the prescription.

Vorsprung

locum-motion wrote: »

Have you considered the fact that a fax is not a prescription?

I suggested this I think.

In my experience, most pharmacists will dispense a medication having received a fax script once the original is in the post.

sfc501

Mod Note

Hi sfc501,

I'm afraid that I have to moderate this post.

I'm sorry that the particular pharmacy couldn't help you out as expected, but you can reasonably easily get a prescription if you see a GP. I would strongly urge that you do this urgently. After hours GP co-op services are available in most areas, a quick google search will give you their details.

Can I suggest that you take a look at this post in the Personal Issues forum if you wish to speak to someone earlier.

I've deleted some posts that follow, and I think we'll wrap things up here.

Vorsprung

Kurtosis

sfc501 wrote: »

snip

Hi OP,

Can I ask did you check in more than one pharmacy? If you have a prescription from a prescriber registered in the EU written in the last 6 months, a pharmacy here should be able to dispense it as normal. The five days supply is an emergency supply which can be dispensed in the absence of a valid prescription, if you have a valid prescription I would definitely suggest trying a different pharmacy.

Also it can be harmful to stop some medications suddenly. As has been suggested above, visiting a GP with your NHS/EHIC card to obtain a new prescription or discuss discontinuing medication may be an alternative option.

Vorsprung

Thread closed.