i have an overactive thyroid..on betablockers an thyroid tablets, does this mean i can get free prescriptions as i have to pay for mine?

[mjack]

[elayneg]

Hi

You have to pay I tried to apply for free prescriptions but it is only people with underactive thyroid that get it free. I think it is because the assumption is that you will either go into remission or go underactive either on your own or because of treatment.

Sorry about being the bearer of bad news.

Elayne

[mjack]

thanks Elaine for the quick reply, oh well at least i asked and tried! x

[Moggie]

Well I didn't know that - you live and learn.

Moggie x

[MazzaM]

There is a fixed list of conditions which qualify for free prescriptions (have a look online). The only thyroid condition is hypo (as the assumption is that this is a permanent condition and you will need thyroxine to survive). I had Graves and got no free meds, even when I needed thyroxine as part of the treatment. As Elayne rightly said, the assumption is that you will have remission or go hypo eventually after RAI or surgery. I am now hypo (post RAI) and get all meds free as I am on life-long hypo treatment.

[Loopybird]

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but in 1997 when I had Graves Diseases & was on block & replace, immediately Levothyroxine was introduced I was told that I no longer had to pay for prescriptions & to fill in the relevant paperwork (sorry can't remember name of it) have it signed by my GP & send off...

This I did and was sent a Exemption card...The pharmasist also marked my prescription that I had handed in initially as being exempt from payment....

I have given this advice previously to someone who asked the very same question & if I remember correctly they went on to get the exemption,,,

I also googled (just to be sure & this is the info re Hypothyroidism etc..)

.•Myxoedema

(underactive thyroid) or other conditions where supplemental thyroid hormone is necessary

It is the last part that is relevant & prehaps not widely known by Patients & GP's

So give it a go

xx

Loopy

[PinkNinja in reply to Loopybird]

That is really interesting! Thanks for the info. I'm sure there are other people out there who don't know this.

Carolyn x

[Loopybird]

The Line of text that I put on my previous post was taken from Patient.co.uk web site...thought I would check the wording on NHS Business services website...

On their website the sentence now reads.....

Myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism requiring thyroid hormone replacement)

So looks like it was amended (tightened up) when they included to the list, exemption status for patients undergoing cancer treatment.

Sorry Mjack

x

Loopy

[VintageChick]

personally I think it's a real that we hypers don't get free prescriptions. It costs me a fortune to buy all my meds. I'm looking forward to this remission that everyone talks about!

[Loopybird]

Thinking back to my financial circumstances when diagnosed with Graves, I was in a bare min waged job...it could have come to a toss up between med's & eating because I was on something like 14 pills a day (2 diff med's)

So when Levo was introduced that would have meant 3 prescription charges I would have had to find monthly....couldn't have afforded the prepayment cert....at all...the way things are today I am betting that some people find themselves in the same predicament.....

x

loopy

[rookery in reply to Loopybird]

Does noone use the prepayment prescription card? You pay something like £9-10 pm for 10 months by direct debit, and this covers all your prescriptions for the year. You get a white card thatyou wave in front of the pharmacist when you collect your prescriptions, no cash required. Better than paying each time if you are getting more than 2 prescriptions per month. I used this before getting my exemption - for my asthma meds and made sure all my vitamin and iron supplements were prescribed so they fell under this as well.

[Jackie]

Off topic, but if you take Beta blockers on the morning of the test, before the test you do get a false thyroid result.

Jackie

[VintageChick]

Ooh going to check out the prescription card, thank you.

[mjack]

thanks everyone, never new about the beta blockers affecting the thyroid test, should be told all of this by gp or doctor at hospital, going to look into the prepayment prescription card, Michelle

[VintageChick]

Few years to go til pension age!