Forgot my medication on french trip, got amazing service.

[MarthaF]

I recently went to France on cycling trip and discovered I'd bought all my medication EXCEPT T3. ( i take 125 thyroxine and 10 liothronine). I went in a pharmacy who said they needed confirmation from my doctor, tried to find french doc then by chance cycled past pharmacy with a doctor in it. Showed her my prescription online. She said fine come back at 4. Voila! Came back and paid just over 6 euros for it. So pleased with the service. I know NHS pay less than they did for T3 but i suspect this is still cheaper?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

currently NHS pays £59 per 28 tablets of Teva, Mercury Pharma or Morningside 20mcg

[Aurealis in reply to SlowDragon]

hi slowdragon, I wonder where you get the pricing information. That’s different to the link I got from Helvella

bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/lioth...

[helvella Administrator in reply to Aurealis]

Are you looking at the NHS Indicative Price or the NHS Drug Tariff price?

And, if you looked at the BNF a little while ago, the numbers could well have been different.

The NHS Drug Tariff prices are £59.31 for all 20 microgram tablets.

(Also, the BNF lists by distributor and that causes endless confusion!)

[Aurealis in reply to helvella]

sorry, I slipped into a parallel universe where price means price, that is how much it costs

[helvella Administrator in reply to Aurealis]

I really find it confusing!

And changes are just going through which affect the prices/recoverable costs of branded versus generic products. Just to make it even more impenetrable!

[Aurealis in reply to helvella]

can I get information on that anywhere please - still in pursuit of MP

[helvella Administrator in reply to Aurealis]

This is a link into the story - but you will have to follow several white rabbits down holes and shed many tears to reach much sense. It is particularly difficult for those of us outside as even the basics are clear and I've never found a helpful explanation.

BGMA: NHS must complete drug reimbursement reforms or face higher bill

21 Sep 2022

News

NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) will be forced to pay a “higher drugs bill” unless it “urgently” completes its planned drug reimbursement reforms, the head of the British Generic Manufacturers Association’s (BGMA) has told C+D.

chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD...

[Aurealis in reply to helvella]

thank you, but it’s very difficult to understand, or doesn’t make sense 🤦‍♀️

[helvella Administrator in reply to Aurealis]

It doesn't make sense to me, that's for sure!

[Aurealis in reply to helvella]

this is where I began to feel it made no sense -

“The new “split discount” means that from next month, pharmacies will face a higher discount on reimbursement prices for generic products, at 17.52%, and a lower one for branded medicines, at 5%, Mr Samuels explained. Ultimately, this will ensure that “those in areas of higher-than-average brand prescribing do not lose out on their share of pharmacy margin”, he said.”

[Aurealis in reply to helvella]

I suppose I’m not allowed to say perhaps it would be more cost effective to nationalise pharmacies?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Glad to hear you go sorted so easily

[helvella Administrator]

Posts like this can be invaluable for anyone who follows in your footsteps! (Though hopefully they'll read your post and take it with them. )

[MarthaF]

They don't seem to have 20mcg in France. I was given Cynomel 25mcg.

[helvella Administrator in reply to MarthaF]

Correct!

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

I have created, and try to maintain, a document containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

From Dropbox:

dropbox.com/s/wfhrlmb5983co...

From Google Drive:

drive.google.com/file/d/11z...