Charged a Prescription Fee for a Non-Prescription Item

cbreeze

My father was given a prescription of a list of items by his doctor and duly paid for them in the pharmacy. Later on when I read the leaflet for one of the items I saw the words 'This product is available without prescription', yet he was asked to pay the €2.50 charge. Should he request a refund from the pharmacy? It does not seem at all right that a pharmacist does not know or does not mention facts like this.

L1011

cbreeze wrote: »

My father was given a prescription of a list of items by his doctor and duly paid for them in the pharmacy. Later on when I read the leaflet for one of the items I saw the words 'This product is available without prescription', yet he was asked to pay the €2.50 charge. Should he request a refund from the pharmacy? It does not seem at all right that a pharmacist does not know or does not mention facts like this.

I suspect that it would be significantly more than 2.50 to get without a prescription and the doctor was doing a favour for your father by prescribing it.

The fee is in effect part payment for the product - the state has paid the rest of the cost. If it is actually cheaper than 2.50 you could go back but it is very unlikely to be worth your while.

rubadub

L1011 wrote: »

I suspect that it would be significantly more than 2.50 to get without a prescription and the doctor was doing a favour for your father by prescribing it.

I thought he was saying he did pay for it, and also charged a dispensing fee. There was a thread a while back about this, and a guy I know had it happen to him, he did not pay the fee, told them to put it back and asked for it again without the prescription in hand and got it.

My dentist once offered to give me a prescription for nurofen plus, to make sure I would get them as some chemists will question you if buying it.

Wesser

The item Is available without a prescription but it was on the prescription anyway, that's why the fee was charged.

Most likely if you have it off the prescription you would have to pay a lot more than 2.50 for it.

endacl

rubadub wrote: »

My dentist once offered to give me a prescription for nurofen plus, to make sure I would get them as some chemists will question you if buying it.

n+ contains codeine. All pharmacists will 'question' customers who request a product containing codeine, because that's the role of the pharmacist. They're required to do so. It's kinda their job. In my experience, the 'questioning' amounts to 'you're aware that this product shouldn't be used for more than 2-3 days? You're not taking other medications that may adversely interact with codeine?'. No big deal.

nikkibikki

My doctor put paracetamol (amongst other things) on a prescription for me last week. It would have cost me more than €2.50 to buy that amount of it over the counter so he did me a favour. I'd imagine the pharmacist would tell you if it's cheaper to buy an item OTC. It'd be in their own interests to sell something at a retail price rather than wait for the HSE to pay them I'm guessing.

coylemj

Some of us may be missing the fact that the OP's father got the drugs under the medical card scheme, that's why there was a 'prescription charge'.

As L1011 pointed out in the first response, the GP was doing his patient a favour by including the drugs in a prescription so the HSE picked up the tab even though the same item is available over the counter. Nonetheless, the OP still thinks his father was ripped off - is it any wonder the HSE runs out of money every year?