Liothyronine (T3)

[millefleur40]

Is anyone else getting their liothyronine prescription stopped? Re this massive price increase:-

thetimes.co.uk/article/huge...

[Clutter]

Millefleur40,

I fervently hope my prescription continues. I haven't heard anything to the contrary.

[millefleur40 in reply to Clutter]

Apart from the online and newspaper reports. My repeat prescription was refused at the pharmacy - they said prob with suppliers.....go bk to gp.

[Clutter in reply to millefleur40]

Millefleur40,

As you have a prescription you should try other pharmacies. Perhaps large pharmacies like Boots or Lloyds will have stock.

[mmatrina]

My daughter's GP practice refused her T3 which was prescribed by a hospital consultant. He had been told by the CCG that covers her area that he could not prescribe it on the NHS after 6 April this year ( he is appealing) so she saw him privately. When she submitted her Drs prescription to the pharmacist he said he couldn't give it to her and he would have to refer it on (to CCG?). She then got a letter saying T3 could be prescribed on a named patient basis but she couldn't get it on the NHS as it was a private prescription! Which would have cost around £300 per month! Okay if you have plenty of money but too bad if you haven't. So much for being responsible for your own health and saving the NHS money by paying for a single consultation.

[Aurealis]

I'm really worried about this. I feel braced to hear that my GP is going to stop mine. In fact I feel quite depressed about the whole situation. I'm having enough difficulty getting stable as it is, without them wilfully messing up my levels with drug changes. Is it medical negligence to withdraw a drug a patient needs? The European Court on Human Rights would be useful to have on our side (if we stay in the EU!). How are others coping with this? I am wondering if Liothyronine has had its head raised above the parapet so to speak and more and more GPs will withdraw it now aft reading their daily newspaper I think their prescription program flags it up as expensive as they prescribe. What are we going to do?

[Clutter in reply to Aurealis]

Aurealis,

ECHR is entirely separate to the EU. We will have recourse to ECHR whether we remain or leave the EU.

[millefleur40]

What needs to happen is that the Government should step in and stop these greedy heartless pharmaceutical companies having the monopoly on providing such meds as T3 to the NHS! How can they be allowed to get away with hiking an already inflated price of 16P per tablet to over £9 per tablet! Government/NHS solution I'd to just take patients off something that is helping them :@

[puffyface]

It's criminal. However, I think that the price of T3 has been this much for a while. I used to have to buy my own (about 6 months ago) and it was about £270 for a pot of 28 pills.

[millefleur40 in reply to puffyface]

My first lot of T3 was Tiromel £16 for 100 25mcg tabs. There is no need for UK to charge £9 per tablet :@

[Warwickshirelass00 in reply to millefleur40]

Hello millefleur40,

Please could you pm me the supplier of T3? Did you feel much better after taking it? Thank you

[MichelleBerko]

I read on another post here that your doctor can write out a prescription on a 'named patient' basis, and also a 'named source'.

So it can be bought much cheaper from a European country.

[Aurealis in reply to MichelleBerko]

Thank you. That could be very useful information. Does anyone know any more about this. I knew about named patient basis, but not 'named source'. I would also need literature to convince my GP. Is there any written guidance on named patient basis and named source?

[Clutter in reply to Aurealis]

Aurealis,

I've never heard of 'named source'. 'Named patient basis' means doctors can prescribe drugs which aren't licensed for UK use like Armour, NatureThroid etc. or alternative T3 like Sanofi-Aventis Cynomel.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

[Aurealis in reply to Clutter]

Thanks Clutter, I was aware of the information on the website but I know my GP would only look at information from an 'official' source, NHS or whatever. Are we able to access anything like that. I did ask once before about named patient (during T3 shortage) but was just told that's not available any more. It's really hard to argue without something from an official source. I know that I can trust thyroid uk, but GP doesn't feel the same way!

[Clutter in reply to Aurealis]

Aurealis,

There's a lot more information here google.co.uk/search?q=Named...

[Aurealis in reply to Clutter]

Thank you, wish I'd thought of Google - foggier than usual