What is an NHS prescription?
An NHS prescription is a prescription issued by a doctor on behalf of the NHS. Depending upon your condition and medication, the prescription may either be a one-off for a short period of time, or a repeat, where the ongoing treatment is required for a longer period of time.
The National Health Service Act 1946 contained a provision that NHS services should be provided free of charge, unless the Act expressly provided for a charge. This provision had been carried forward into the legislation further down the years, only until charges were introduced in 1952 at the rate of one shilling per prescription. Over the years, this price encountered a number of changes, which as of now has been set by the NHS at a charge of £9.35 per item on every prescription.
However, there is a broad system of exemptions from prescription charges, for certain category of patients, depending upon their age and circumstances, such as those on low incomes, those having a valid medical exemption certificate, those having a valid maternity exemption certificate, those having a war pension exemption certificate, those having paid for a prescription prepayment certificate, those under the age of 16, and those over the age of 60. In this way, on the whole, almost 89% of NHS prescription items are dispensed in the community, free of charge.
What is a private prescription?
A private prescription is a prescription issued by a private doctor, for which he is responsible for, and not the NHS. An NHS doctor cannot convert a private prescription to an NHS prescription; and a private doctor can’t issue an NHS prescription. Unlike for an NHS prescription, there is no special stationery mandated by the General Medical Council for a private prescription, which means that it can be handwritten, printed, or created electronically by an authorized prescriber on any piece of paper or regulatory compliant electronic system.
Because a private prescription is not written on an official NHS prescription paper, so it is not paid for by the NHS too. The cost of a private prescription is thus met wholly by the patient, which varies depending upon the medications prescribed. Unlike in the case of NHS, there are no payment exemptions for private prescriptions.
Yet, many people opt for such private services because of the high demand and waiting times associated with NHS services, making private prescriptions faster. You can receive a private prescription through a face-to-face appointment with your doctor, or through post after an online consultation with a private doctor, or directly in an online form, where you need no physical appointment, nor do you need to walk down to the pharmacy store. Instead, you can simply order your medication online.
What is a one-off prescription?
A one-off prescription is one that is to be used only once. It is a prescription that is issued by a doctor after analyzing the patient’s condition that is only temporary, such as an injury, infection, seasonal flu, or the like. For such conditions, a doctor prescribes medicines to treat a specific medical condition for only a short period of time.
Generally, the prescription should be a one-time one that helps recover from the temporary ailment within a few days. However, depending upon the speed of recovery, and amount of infection left after the dose is complete, another prescription may be prescribed, but this time, with changes in either the dosages or quantities than the previous prescription. In any case, these medicines include those that may not be regularly prescribed by a doctor at all times. It would only include temporary medications like antibiotics and pain relief medicines.
What is a repeat prescription?
If your doctor finds that you need to take a medication on a regular basis, it can be issued through a repeat prescription. A repeat prescription is issued by a prescribing health care professional for medical conditions that need to be treated for a long period of time, meaning medications to serve long-term conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.
Once you have been monitored for potential side effects and reactions, where you need multiple check-ins with the doctor, you can then be prescribed a repeat prescription, where you’ll need the doctor’s appointment no more. As any medication requires a doctor’s approval, so is not the case for a repeat prescription.
A repeat prescription shows that you can get the medication from a pharmacy without the need for a doctor’s appointment beforehand. You may thus be able to request another prescription without having to see your doctor each time you need more medicine. This is possible once the repeated supply of the medicine has been authorized for a specific period of time, until a set review rate. Many surgeries may let you request a repeat prescription online. You may also have these repeat prescriptions delivered right at your doorstep, without wasting your time to walk down to the pharmacy.
Can I get an NHS prescription online?
Yes, you can now order your NHS prescription online and securely with Buckden Pharmacy’s “Order Repeat Prescription” service. If you already have a one-off prescription from your doctor, we can dispense the medications for you.
All you need to do is register your personal details and the name of your doctor. Once you register with us and place your repeat order online through our website, we’ll then send your repeat request to your doctor’s surgery, who’ll check and approve the same, followed by delivering the prescription back to us electronically. Once we’ve received back your prescription, we’ll notify you to collect your medication.
Alternatively, you can also opt for our free delivery service that’ll have our in-house drivers deliver the medication right at your doorstep. It’s that easy to manage your prescriptions online! This service is available to all patients in the vicinity, whether you are a patient, or a caretaker. And, the best part is that you can have the prescription recommended by any surgery in the whole of England! So, if you’re living anywhere in or near Buckden, you now have one less thing to worry about.
Can I buy non-prescription pharmacy medicines online?
You cannot get prescription medicines without a prescription. That’s because these medicines are stronger than other regular ones, and may be intended to treat certain major or serious medical problems. Also, they may lead to severe side-effects if wrongly taken. That’s why such medications are only prescribed by a doctor after analyzing all your health and medical concerns.
Hence, for safety purposes, such medicines won’t be supplied to you if you do not have an official prescription from a doctor. However, other over-the-counter medicines can be bought without a doctor’s prescription, because these medicines are usually intended to treat minor and regular ailments like headache, cold, cough, upset stomach, etc. All such pain-killers, cough syrups, allergy medications, etc. can be thus easily availed without any doctor’s consent.
Nevertheless, they may have a limit on how many you can buy in a single transaction. Also, there could be certain over-the-counter medications that may require an approval from a pharmacist, which means you may have to answer a few questions to provide additional information. This is done so that the pharmacist can check if the medicine is appropriate for you or not. If there are no problems, your order will be approved and dispatched towards your delivery address.
What are electronic prescriptions?
The way the NHS is providing prescriptions to patients is significantly changing. The new Electronic Prescription Service (or EPS) can be sent from the GP to the pharmacy right away, without having you to do anything in between. The NHS now allows most GPs in England to send prescriptions directly to a pharmacy of your choice, without you having to walk down to the surgery and book an appointment for getting a prescription written.
You have to do is let the pharmacy know, through phone or email, what repeat medicines you need, a few days before they run out. The pharmacy will then get in touch with your GP and arrange for collecting your prescription from the doctor’s surgery. The GP can also electronically send the prescription, safely and securely, to the pharmacy.
This EPS service offers a flexible and convenient way to get your medicines quickly. Instead of collecting a paper prescription from your GP, you head straight to your pharmacy to pick up your medicines. And even better, you can have them delivered right at your doorstep for absolutely no extra cost! You thus need to go nowhere at all! All you have to do is nominate Buckden Pharmacy as your pharmacy of choice, and enjoy the free convenient services. And, the best part is that the prescription can be sent to the pharmacy from any surgery in England! So, make life easier for yourself, and let the pharmacy order the prescription on your behalf.
What is a nominated pharmacy?
Patients can now have their NHS prescriptions sent directly from their GP to the pharmacy of their choice through an electronic prescription service, where the prescription will be in an electronic form, and not the traditional paper prescription that a doctor prescribes to you when you visit them. To be able to use this EPS service of the NHS, you need to nominate a pharmacy that’s convenient for you.
A nominated pharmacy is a pharmacy of your choice, one that you have selected particularly to dispense or deliver your medications to you. Nominating a pharmacy lets the NHS know where you’d like your electronic prescription to be sent to.
Your nominated pharmacy will receive the prescription directly from your GP, and then prepare it, ready for you to collect it. Or even better, you could have the medicines delivered right away to you.
The benefit of nominating a pharmacy is that you will no longer need to walk down to your GP’s surgery and wait to collect a paper prescription. Instead, you can order your prescription easily online (and your medicines too), right from the comfort of your home!
How do I nominate a pharmacy?
You can nominate any pharmacy that uses the EPS service. It could be one that is close to where you live, or where you work, or whatever works best for you. And, if you’re looking for free home delivery of the medications, you can always choose Buckden Pharmacy as the pharmacy of your choice, as we offer both EPS and free prescription delivery services to our clients. All you have to do is get onto, and fill up the form to nominate Buckden Pharmacy for your EPS Nomination service.
The form is a very basic one, asking you some very general questions like the patient’s full name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, NHS number, etc.
If you are a caretaker, and not the patient, you simply can check on the box that says “Patient Representative”. After filling the form, you simply click the “Nominate Now” button, and the pharmacy is conveniently selected as the pharmacy of your choice. You can now have your prescriptions delivered safely and securely to them from your GP’s surgery.
Can I change my nominated pharmacy?
You can nominate any high street pharmacy in your NHS account using the NHS App or the NHS website. A high street pharmacy is one that may deliver the medicines to your place of choice, but also allows for collecting your medicines from the store. However, if you rather wish to nominate an online-only pharmacy that sends medicines through post, you cannot do so through your NHS account.
Rather, if you wish to change your nominated pharmacy to an online-only pharmacy, you can do so after registering with the pharmacy through their website or any other means of contacting them. Whatever choice you make, remember that any outstanding prescriptions you have ordered, after changing your nominated pharmacy, may still arrive at your current nominated pharmacy.
