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I am opposed to any NHS privatisation.

I recently declined (pig headedly) an appointment COPD check up by a 'visiting nurse' at my Doctors because when I checked the companies name they were a private Healthcare provider brought in to provide the service rather than the practice own nurse, who gave me the last check up incedently.

Anyway, today I got a letter from the hospital offering a home delivery of my monthly supply of medications. I normally have a checkup then 3 days later return to the hospital for the drugs.

A quick search tells me the delivery is funded by the pharma company, with no cost to the NHS HERE

Now I don't know whether to make the 2 trips out of moral indignation, through rain and snow, just to spite this thin end of the privatisation wedge.

It must add cost somewhere along the line, it is not a service provided free of charge.

Bruv;1519286 wrote: I am opposed to any NHS privatisation.

I recently declined (pig headedly) an appointment COPD check up by a 'visiting nurse' at my Doctors because when I checked the companies name they were a private Healthcare provider brought in to provide the service rather than the practice own nurse, who gave me the last check up incedently.

Anyway, today I got a letter from the hospital offering a home delivery of my monthly supply of medications. I normally have a checkup then 3 days later return to the hospital for the drugs.

A quick search tells me the delivery is funded by the pharma company, with no cost to the NHS HERE

Now I don't know whether to make the 2 trips out of moral indignation, through rain and snow, just to spite this thin end of the privatisation wedge.

It must add cost somewhere along the line, it is not a service provided free of charge.


There is a cost independent pharmacies will eventually have to close as they lose the business. Don't know about where you are but here loal pharmacies offer a home delivery service

These are cancer tablets dispensed from the hospital and unavailable from the high street pharmacy, but I have also seen prescription delivery advertised on TV to fit into your busy lives.

To be honest this suits me, it would cut out a 15-20 minute drive each way to collect a bag thats waiting for me on arrival.

It wound me up when I was sent to a private hospital for a scan some time ago, don't know if I can resist this offer though.

Why would they not be available from any pharmacy where there is actually a dispensing pharmacist?

On a completely different note I am unable to log in without going through the forum to find the one I want and then clicking on reply. But that doesn;t work for all of them and I when I do finally get logged in when I trty to reply I'm getting kicked off and told to log in or register. Would yopu do me do me a favour and pass this on to the administrators as I cannot contact them directly

I will do that................if I can, might be suffering the same glitch. A PM has been sent to Mr Spot.

The drugs are not available 'off the shelf', they have to be handled with care, according to the instructions ie using gloves to handle them if you're not takeing them.

They are called Ibrutinib trade name Imbruvica, frighteningly expensive when last I looked. I believe they are some sort of chemo, they have sorted me out nicely thank you. Last time I saw my Consultant his opening line was "If you I hadn't prescribed that drug you would be dead by now" because they are now off the list.

My suspicion is that the cost of this service is paid for out of our taxes (where else? Charity?) but that it does not come out of the official NHS budget and so it can be claimed officially that it is not costing the NHS, although it IS a healthcare cost. Accountancy trick also used to recruit expensive temporary staff rather than cheaper full time ones because temps come out of a different budget...the difference is that the temp trick is used within NHS Trusts and the delivery thing looks like a wider application of the principle.

For the majority of pharma funded homecare services, the NHS is liable only for the cost of the drug / product with the service costs funded by the pharma company. This is a key factor driving the use of these services within the NHS compared to NHS funded homecare services. Pharma funded homecare services form the majority, by both patient volume and expenditure, of all homecare services provided by NHS trusts across the country.

Looks a bit wishy washy to me.

Blimey. So the big pharmacy companies make enough selling the NHS drugs that it is worth it to them to set up an entire staffed delivery service to keep the NHS buying their products. I owe the government an apology - I'd thought it a scummy political trick but it is in fact a scummy business one, by the look of it.

It does however make your moral dilemma easier, I think. Use their services for all they are worth - we are paying for it in the end by buying their overpriced drugs with our taxes through the NHS. Ask for daily deliveries, individually gift wrapped? And a loyalty card?

Just had my monthly checkup, they didn't have a clue what I was talking about,said I should ask at the pharmacy when I pick my next lot of pills on Wednesday.

Hmm. Just occurs to me: Is this a situation where they provide the service "free" now, but in a few years they'll claim they cannot afford this free service and will begin to introduce a "small charge..."?

Sounds as though there were no alarms or sirens going off during the check-up which is always a good thing.

I get my meds delivered to me by the local Pharmacy. All I need to is phone an order, they put in the prescription request & pick it up from the surgery (all in the same building), then deliver it. As I have always been exempt from Prescription Charges there's nothing to pay whatsoever.

Update....I asked at the pharmacy following the checkup nurse not having a clue what I was talking about.

Anyway they had no idea either, but after looking at the letter said to enquire either by phone or email, which I did by email on the 23rd, still waiting a reply

I had forgotten about it, so I shall try by phone next Tuesday...............if I remember.

Not giving much confidence in the service so far though.

As for the funding of the service - there are many different Pharmacies. Each one of them makes a set fee per item dispensed. Therefore, in order to maximise the number of items dispensed they want to encourage you to use their Pharmacy over another. After all, despite the locality of my local Pharmacy if they didn't deliver I would have difficulties in getting there to collect my prescriptions due to work hours. If they didn't provide the service I would find another one that did and my local one would lose that business - not only from myself, but from many others like me. The cost isn't much to the pharmacy. It's just one bloke who does a daily round in his car / van taking, in all, about 2 hours.