MIMS is the book of notes about drugs that you will often see you GP checking. It gives all sorts of info about them - including the prices to the NHS. Thanks to piglette we have these figures - which may be useful to you when you have asked for enteric coated pred so you can give up the omeprazole and your GP demurs on the grounds it is far too expensive.
Uncoated
pred:
1mg tab, 28=76p.
5mg tab, 28=86p.
25mg tab, 56=£75.00.
Coated
pred:
1mg, 30=£1.91.
2.5mg, 28=£1.14.
5mg, 28=£1.18.
Lodotra
(not available on the NHS but you can have it privately)
1mg white tab marked NP1, 30=£26.70
2mg white tab marked NP2, 30=£26.70; 100=£89.00.
5mg yellow tab marked NP5, 30=£26.70; 100=£89.00.
Omeprazole
(for "stomach protection" and dished out like sweeties. It is also a major cause of osteoporosis, never mind pred)
10mg, 28=£7.90.
20mg, 28=£6.18.
40mg, 7=£6.20.
In the absence of any evidence these figures are not correct - my arithmetic suggests that giving the patient plain pred plus omeprazole costs significantly more than giving them enteric coated pred - and on top of that there is the fact that there is an extra dispensing fee for the pharmacy.
They might suggest that it doesn't work as well - that study was done in patients with gastroenterological problems. N/A
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Dread to think how much I cost the NHS early dates with my 25mg tabs of Pred. No wonder the chemist always wanted prior knowledge because they had to order them specially!
There is one country in the Far East, I forget which one, where drugs are just a small, fixed price like in U.K. that gives everyone a receipt when they pick up their prescription. It means that people are made aware of the true cost. I thought it was quite a good idea.
Not only, although it isn't quite as good - when you go to the pharmacy in Germany or here the price of your medication is clearly printed on the box. In Germany, if you have private coverage of any sort (if you earn more than a not particularly high salary) then you pay up-front and claim it back at the end of the month. For a hospital stay you provide the evidence of cover when you are admitted - but still get a receipt at discharge plus a bill for any services you chose to add.
It is a very good idea - it might stop people "losing" (or otherwise treating as disposable) asthma inhalers that cost nearly £90! Or getting a repeat prescription and not taking the drug.
When I was living in Belgium we had the same system of paying and claiming back. I absolutely agree it makes people aware of the high cost of some meds.
The ordering it in is more to do with turnover and use-by dates. There isn't a lot of use of 25mg tablets so that accounts for their price and needing to be ordered. Our pharmacy gets most things same day if you order before 12, overnight if you are later. And apparently, they get some things from the hospital pharmacy.
Yes I did appreciate that, the first time the local pharmacy at the time had to check with GP she'd actually put the correct dose, and hasn't meant 2.5mg - they'd never had a patient wanting 25mg before. They always got it no problem, I just rang and told then when I requested repeat prescription from GP.
At one time OH was taking over 20 tablets a day for heart, diabetes, prostate et al - what a nightmare. Talk about needing a degree in Maths! or maybe Juggling! 🤔
Lot to be said for liquid formulations! David couldn't swallow pills - and the GP was being an a*^"& and would give me the scripts for liquids. Tried to tell me they weren't available (I'm not that daft, I checked in MIMS first). Since he had to prescribe what the oncologist ordered he looked a bit of prat when the next batch from the hospital was for liquids...
Since they'd already had a good go at killing him I voted with my feet. Never stood for nonsense like that since for more than a day or two until I had girded my loins...
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Coated pred/ppi
Switching from partial enteric coated
Prednisolone enteric coated
Mixing coated and uncoated pred
Thought you might like to read my Rheumys comments in letter to GP about enteric coated Prednisolone.
