I have the 3 monthly B12 injections and am getting fed up that I have to pay £8 + prescription cost for a single amplule, tried to get 4 or 5 (pack) as they would not go out of date over 12 months on the prescription but it always gets changed to a single ampule.
Does anyone else have a way to get more on the prescription or even provide your own from online source? Would the nurse know if it were from another source. I guess the Dr would know as there would not be the repeat scripts per quater.
I just feel it is a complete rip off.
Thanks
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philward
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Hi philward, I'm dealing with similar frustration this morning. I am on pins and needles with all of the regulation and am wondering how in the world something so critical for us needs to be so complicated. Tried to refill my one month prescription and was told it was "too soon", finding it hard to muster a fight right now. Will be interested to see what others say.
Unfortunately rules on the NHS in terms of prescription focus on not getting more than a month at a time.
Most of us that get injections on NHS get them done at the surgery and there is no prescription charge so wondering why you are needing to get a prescription filled at a pharmacy. Do you get the phial and then inject yourself?
You can obtain B12 without prescription from pharmacies in Germany and France - and that includes buying them on line and having them sent to you in the UK - you can do this for yourself because currently UK law incorporates a clause from EU legislation allowing you to import for personal use medications that you cannot obtain locally (but if you do it on behalf of someone else who is not a member of your household then strictly speaking you would be deemed to be supplying prescription only medications).
People use a range of pharmacies - mainly German - including versando.de, goldpharma, mycare.de and even amazon.de. Can be problems with language even though most of the sites have a degree of translation and some will ask for first payment to be made up-front though you can then use card to pay afterwards. Most seem to accept card for the first payment.
ps - the month at a time was introduced because people were obtaining prescriptions for several months but then stopped using them before the end of the period for which they had been supplied so it was originally about being prudent with costs. However, paying £8 for something that costs less than £1 is rather punitive.
My friend and his son(both at same surgery) gets given a box of five at a time but they dont pay for them. He and his son just take the box each time they are due an injection.
I get mine done at the drs via the nurse and therefore dont pay either(different surgery). I think its an individual practice thing. Might be worth mentioning next time you are due to collect.
My surgery will prescribe 3 at a time but then I pay to get the prescription (although I have a pre-paid certificate).
I was self injecting so I bought a supply from Germany; I accidentally used all my nhs ones self-injecting - I couldn't get anymore from the surgery so I had to attend my nurses appointment with the contraband for injecting by nurse!! I thought I was going to expire with fright when she said, 'These aren't the same as usual'? I rapidly responded with, 'oh I was on holiday when I got my prescription filled; must be a different health authority using a different supplier'. She continued to examine the vial with suspicion before she injected me!!
Later, I was forced to admit to myself that this deficiency, amongst other things, has turned me in to a proficient liar 🤥
Your "story" makes me realise just how fortunate I have been during the more than 45 years I've had P.A and been on four weekly injections of cyanocobamalin since 1972 - a total of over 600 jabs.
Admittedly I had to pay for my prescribed B12 for nearly 30 years until until 2001 when I was 60 (I think that's the age that when reached prescriptions are then "free") but at least I have always been prescribed five ampules at a time.
I'm also hypothyroidic, and the only advantage to this is that you become eligible for a medical exemption certificate. I'm not sure why this should be, but I've been getting my meds free for the past 25 years because of this! Seems unfair that another condition that's for life, B12 def, doesn't also warrant exemption for prescription charges. Having said that, I don't begrudge the money I spend at versando.de one bit! Worth every euro!
Didn't realise that, I'll have to come up with another reason why Scotland is better! How about if you live on an island (as I do) and need a referral to a specialist in Glasgow? Then you get a free return flight! First flight out and last back gives you a chance to wander round the shops after your consultation!
Philward's scenario just seems grossly unfair! Pernicious Anaemia is an Auto-immune condition that we have for life - just as (Hashimoto's form of) Hypothyroidism is. Any medical staff on this site - or Is anyone else knowledgeable enough here - to explain the seemingly different approach taken by the NHS? - viz: a Hypo/Hyperthyroidism diagnosis gives you FREE prescriptions for life (including any meds. NOT related to that condition) - whilst PA- diagnosed patients DON'T get allowed the same exemption.
I'm always wondering this but haven't got around to asking a GP yet! Thanks in advance.
Discussion over on Thyroid UK often focusses on the fact that the exemption is not available for hyperthyroidism but is not for hypothyroidism. Then on whether it is available if you are on "block and replace" - where you are made hypothyroid by one medicine and then have the hormone supplied by tablet (iatrogenic hypothyroidism, if you wish).
About the only rationale ever suggested is that the list included those chronic diseases for which a pharmacological treatment was available when they first drew up the list. And it has never been fully revised (though cancers have been added). Not at all convinced that B12 wasn't available back then, so perhaps it is as bad an argument as any other?
I can't help thinking that a surgery could simply abandon prescriptions for B12 injections, buy in bulk, and end up finding it costs them less. All this paperwork and so on is madness.
You can apply for a medical exemption certificate if you have one of the following medical conditions:
a permanent fistula (for example, caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy) which needs continuous surgical dressing or an appliance
a form of hypoadrenalism (for example, Addison’s Disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential
diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism
diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone
hypoparathyroidism
myasthenia gravis
myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism which needs thyroid hormone replacement)
epilepsy which needs continuous anticonvulsive therapy
a continuing physical disability which means you cannot go out without the help of another person
And for explaining that Hyperthyroidism is also treated less favourably, like PA, when it comes to the NHS!
F.A.O. PA Administrators - Is this something yourselves - or Martin Hooper - could consider approaching the NHS about - to seek the official answer? [My apologies if this has already have been addressed!].
It appears there's no consistency across the board when it comes to how each surgery deals with PA injections and the amount they 'allow' you per 'script.
My previous surgery injected us with their own stock of B12 vials (don't know how they procured them?} so no 'script necessary. My current surgery issues a 'script - for a pack of 5 vials; I just take one in each qtr. for Nurse to inject.
N.B. There's no entry for it on my "Repeat Prescription' record - Nurse stated that's because I don't need another one within a 12 mth. period. (Their protocol is "one size fits all" - we can't have them 2 mthly or more frequently!)
Toph - many of us are still TRYING to get our GPs to treat us i.a.w. the recognised guidelines they SHOULD apply! (- without having to resort to self-procurement and S/I as many have done, in desperation, to cope with life).
Nurse's/GP's won't readily take responsibility for injecting us with our own vials of B12, since they can't verify their source/contents - when it's a POM medication in the UK.
I recieved my 3 montly injection yesturday and also have to pay £8.60 for the 1 injection as they wont prescribe more. My surgery will only write 1 prescription per month even for lifelong meds (i have Crohns). So a prepayment certificate is not a saving unless you need 3 diff scrips each month. I have lobbied my MP (who is a gp!) with the Crohns society who basically said 'Tough'...
I think there is a problem with the arithmetic there!
You only need thirteen items a year to "save" compared to paying each prescription charge. 12 gets you to £103.20, and an annual prepayment certificate costs £104. So that is just one prescription more per year than one a month.
I think you are missing the point, yes my arithmatic is incorrect BUT requiring meds for pernicious anemia which can be a life threatening illness should be free. Along with many other life threatening conditions like my Crohns. The prescription exemptions have not been updated for years and that was my point. I have to pay for these prescriptions. We are lobbying parliment to have changes made. So while you are correct, 4 paid prescriptions a year or more is still too much. That was my point!
I think you will find my contribution up-thread is very much in favour of review of conditions covered. I cannot think of a single rational argument against B12 injections being covered in the same way as hypothyroidism requiring treatment by thyroid hormone.
I even suggested that getting you to pay might actually be more cost to the practice than giving them without charge.
What I didn't want to happen was someone read your response and, assuming you were arithmetically correct, not bother to get a Prepayment Certificate when it might actually benefit them.
I have never had to pay for my B12 injections at my Doctors. I am not entitled to free prescriptions either so presume that the medical centre picks up the cost.
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I just loved reading your response to the nurse and have been chuckling at this for ages this evening.
Ha Ha Ha ............ 
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