A & E is no longer free!!

Laafet

Laafet

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adventuresinblackandwhite.co.uk
I thought I post this having read the 'should I go to A and E' thread. I had a crashing fall last month from a height onto my neck and head. I felt okish at the time but was in agony by the following morning. My boss let me go to A and E as he was concerned too. Anyway went in, it was busy but as soon as I mention 'horse', 'fall at height and speed' and 'pain in neck' they had me in and strapped to a spinal board in a neck brace. I had full neck and spine x-rays and they concluded that it was probably bad bruising and an aggrevation of my old whiplash injury. They packed me off with super strong painkillers and I was relieved. However at the point where I was going to leave, someone came with a clipboard and asked if I nomally pay for prescriptions, I should have lied and said no, but I was honest and said yes. She then told me to go to the front desk to pay. I was gobsmacked I have never ever paid for drugs or treament given in A and E and I have been in there a fair bit through work and horses (one of the same really). I hadn't got enough cash on me and of course did not have a cheque book (I never carry that about) so they wrote me a note. I did comment that I have never been charged before and the receptionist just replied 'I'm new, so don't know if this is a recent thing. This was Addenbrookes BTW. Has anyone else been charged in A and E or was it just them picking on me?

Oh and I forgot to send the money so I got a *****ty letter from them saying that they nee their loan back! I am going to phone them to query it though.
 
i have never heard that!! Maybe having to pay for the pain relief but we pay NI for a reason to have a free NHS!! Was it just the medication they charged you for or the entire treatment? If there was no sign or nothing mentioned at the start and they have charged you for the entire thing is that not false advertising or something?
Unless its like if you have a dog that gets stuck in a pond you call the firebrigade and have to pay generally...usually a donation i think!
 
What are they charging you for, your prescription drugs? As far as I know it's not unusual for people to be charged for their TTOs at A&E, my friend was when she had to go for cracked ribs a few months ago.
 
You weren't paying for treatment though, you were paying for medication and in the UK, medication incurs a prescription charge. If they'd written you a prescription and you'd taken it to Boots to be filled, you would have had to pay there.
Why should Addenbrookes A&E fund your medications?
 
Yes, I've paid for pain relief prescribed in A&E for a kidney stone and fulfilled at the hospital dispensary. It was five years ago too.

Anyone on repeat prescriptions noticed the 300% increase in charges this year??? I used to get 3 months on one prescription, now I only get 1, so I am paying 3 times as much.
 
I think it is a fairly new thing, but I believe it's only when you are given drugs to take home - they probably didn't charge you for anything given to you in the hospital.

If you went to your GP and got a prescription, you would have to pay for it, so it's just the same principle, and I don't think it's a bad thing.

If you had said you don't normally pay for your prescriptions, I imagine they would have got you to sign the form to say this.

A&E is still free - just the drugs to take home aren't!
 
Yes it was just for the drugs but I have never been charged before that is why I am really surprised by it! I would have taken my cheque book if I'd known. I was in Addenbrookes just over a year ago or so for my car accident and they never charged me for the painkillers that I was discharged with that night.
 
Medication is to be paid at A&E, as far as i am aware it always has been. Same as going to Drs, you pay for your prescriptions.
 
yeah you will be charged for drugs to take away! I think it is one way the nhs is trying to make money! However you do get them free whilst staying in hospital...wierd!
 
I would suspect it's partly because of people going to A&E with minor complaints (as in really, really minor, totally non-emergency complaints, that they should have taken to their GPs), because they thought they would get their prescriptions for free tbh.
 
Maybe it is a new thing. Same as other posts, if you had been staying in they would probably be free but to take home I can understand them charging. I slipped on a wet floor and landed on my head and they didn't even prescribe me anything! Just said to take ibuprofen. I would've gladly paid for the strong stuff!

I remember having to go to doctors out of hours for tonsilitis. The doctor gave me a box of antibiotics and i thought "brilliant! free!". But then a week later I had an invoice posted to me. Damn!
 
To those who rather snottily answered that I should not expect my meds for free have read the post wrongly. I never said I shouldn't pay, just that I had not been asked to pay before until last month. I was just wondering if this was a countrywide thing. Next time I get injured I will remember to draw cash out from the cashpoint or take my cheque book.
 
To be honest though, the prescription charges are not that much really, are they???

We forget how lucky we are, having a health service that is free at the point of delivery.

In South Africa, you pay through the nose for healthcare - even if you have health insurance you have to pay first and claim back later. When I was in my early 20's, I had to have an urgent operation and my dad had to deliver me to Hospital clutching a cheque for the equivalent of about £4,000 (50% of the total estimated cost). Without that, they wouldn't have let me through the front door!
My contraceptive pill cost £30 / month, which medical aid wouldn't cover and I was prescribed a course of anti depressants in my teens, which cost £60 / month (that's enough to depress anyone!).
A visit to the GP can cost anywhere in the region of £50 - £100 equivalent money.
 
Thats insane!!! I have never paid for anything in A&E, whether it be for drugs taken there or taken home and would object very much if they asked me too!!

Does that also mean if you stay in hospital for whatever reason they are also going to charge you for the drugs there?!?! And if you turn up to A&E unconsciencous (Sorry cant spell it!!) they going to charge you for those drugs too even if you couldnt have said no?!

If this catches on everywhere I can see if doing more harm then good- people would be put off going to avoid the costs and therefore what seemed like a minor bumb or knock could prove to be an awful lot worse, poss even fatal as it wasnt looked at straight away!

I could maybe understand paying for the drugs you take away but at my local A&E they only ever give you a day or so worth so you can get to the GP so get more and be reviewed etc. I wouldnt want to pay for a couple of days and then pay again after going to the GP!

But I have issues with the whole paying for medication/government/nhs in some cases anyway!! :D
 
Flicker said:
We forget how lucky we are, having a health service that is free at the point of delivery.
QUOTE]

True! I used to work in a pharmacy so knew how much drugs cost. Yes, it was annoying when I had to pay £6-odd pounds (as it was a few years ago) for drugs that I knew only cost £1 a box BUT I knew of medication that could cost £500! So, the day you only have to pay a small amount is a good day!
Click to expand...
 
I have recently been discharged from a stay in hospital following a fall and admitted through A & E, sent home with loads of medication for which I wasn't charged, presumably charges only apply as an out patient then as in medication prescribed and picked up at doctors?
 
This is because people who are not registered with a GP's, so when they feel ill they go along to their local hospital A&E and get whatever drugs they need. These are the same people who clog up the A&E departments with colds and ear ache.
 
Flicker said:
To be honest though, the prescription charges are not that much really, are they???

We forget how lucky we are, having a health service that is free at the point of delivery.

In South Africa, you pay through the nose for healthcare - even if you have health insurance you have to pay first and claim back later. When I was in my early 20's, I had to have an urgent operation and my dad had to deliver me to Hospital clutching a cheque for the equivalent of about £4,000 (50% of the total estimated cost). Without that, they wouldn't have let me through the front door!
My contraceptive pill cost £30 / month, which medical aid wouldn't cover and I was prescribed a course of anti depressants in my teens, which cost £60 / month (that's enough to depress anyone!).
A visit to the GP can cost anywhere in the region of £50 - £100 equivalent money.
Click to expand...


Actually prescription charges are not cheap when you have to have regular medication.
Thats great comparing us to SA, but we are in the UK and we pay for the NHS!

I also had to recently pay for prescrption charges at hospital following an asthma attck, and was horrified.
I get very angry over who qualifies for free prescriptions and who doesn't. Some illnesses qualify and yet some, like asthma, don't.
If I gave up my job and sat on my backside, I'd get it all for free! Yet the working people are the ones who are paying for it through their taxes and NI already.
 
BigRed said:
This is because people who are not registered with a GP's, so when they feel ill they go along to their local hospital A&E and get whatever drugs they need. These are the same people who clog up the A&E departments with colds and ear ache.
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That explains things very well, thank you, sad but true
 
How strange. I was in A&E for a horse fall 2 years ago and was sent home with cocodamol, no charge for me then, nor 6 months ago when they discharged me from a 10 night emergency stay and enough drugs to dope an elephant.

Must be different PCTs doing their own thing?
 
cptrayes said:
Anyone on repeat prescriptions noticed the 300% increase in charges this year??? I used to get 3 months on one prescription, now I only get 1, so I am paying 3 times as much.
Click to expand...

Yes plus the 20 pence per lot added on since the end of April ;)!! And now they have been awkard and given me two drugs to do the same thing which brings my total to 4 different drugs for 3 things - it adds up!
 
Snowysadude said:
Yes plus the 20 pence per lot added on since the end of April ;)!! And now they have been awkard and given me two drugs to do the same thing which brings my total to 4 different drugs for 3 things - it adds up!
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clearly they were being awkward and giving you 2 things for fun not really to try and treat the problem you presented with in the most effective way.

equally the cost of many 'common' medication far exceeds the cost of a prescription - some very common asthma inhalers actually cost £70. yes - taxes NI are paid etc but it doesn't meet a fraction of the cost of the NHS. If we are lucky enough to reach old age - the medication and treatment most of us will need will cost far more than any of us have paid.
 
I have been in hospital however everything was free as was an inpatient however when i went to out of hours doctors they did ask if i paid or not for some antibiotics i do a pre payment card anyway so made no difference. Was surprised as assumed that they would just give me a prescription to take to a pharmacy that was open late not give me the drugs there and then.

The government are cutting back on the money they pay out for prescription drugs so they have to make the money back in other areas when they give things out.
 
I have never paid for drugs, however, a&e has never been free.
A heroin addict stepped out in front of my car in Glasgow. Pretty out of his face but I had run over his foot so took him to a&e. (to all who are going to give me a hard time for letting him in my car, it was probably not the smartest thing to do but i was a bit shocked and he seemed like a nice guy and not all junkies are bad people :)). I took him in, stayed with him til he got his treatment and then took him home.
About a week later I go a bill for £35 for his treatment lol. I couldn't believe it. I sent it to my company and they dealt with it.
 
Laafet said:
I thought I post this having read the 'should I go to A and E' thread. I had a crashing fall last month from a height onto my neck and head. I felt okish at the time but was in agony by the following morning. My boss let me go to A and E as he was concerned too. Anyway went in, it was busy but as soon as I mention 'horse', 'fall at height and speed' and 'pain in neck' they had me in and strapped to a spinal board in a neck brace. I had full neck and spine x-rays and they concluded that it was probably bad bruising and an aggrevation of my old whiplash injury. They packed me off with super strong painkillers and I was relieved. However at the point where I was going to leave, someone came with a clipboard and asked if I nomally pay for prescriptions, I should have lied and said no, but I was honest and said yes. She then told me to go to the front desk to pay. I was gobsmacked I have never ever paid for drugs or treament given in A and E and I have been in there a fair bit through work and horses (one of the same really). I hadn't got enough cash on me and of course did not have a cheque book (I never carry that about) so they wrote me a note. I did comment that I have never been charged before and the receptionist just replied 'I'm new, so don't know if this is a recent thing. This was Addenbrookes BTW. Has anyone else been charged in A and E or was it just them picking on me?

Oh and I forgot to send the money so I got a *****ty letter from them saying that they nee their loan back! I am going to phone them to query it though.
Click to expand...


I had to pay prescription charges in A&E thirty years ago, so it's not a new thing.
 
I never realised that about A&E either, but can see why with people using it as a GP as people mentioned. Hope you're feeling better soon OP!

Re charges in general though - they really aren't so bad are they? £7 a pop, and if you really can't afford it you don't have to pay it, let alone all the other criteria that gives you them free (pensioner, contraception etc). As the pharmacist on this thread said, yes sometimes you might be spending £7 for 50penceworth of drugs, but equally sometimes you might be paying £7 for something that costs £70. I agree it is a bit rubbish when you feel like poo anyway, then have to toddle down to the chemist while they take a week and a half to find your name, and then part with some of your hard earned cash too - but spend the rest of the tenner on biscuits and you'll feel much better and much happier v soon ;)

Re the asthma thing - my OH is on meds for asthma and does the prepaid card thing or whatever it is, anyway flaps it at them and gets the stuff free? There's also a waiver for chronic conditions isn't there? I know there's about 10 things on the list that get you off paying on the prescription piece of paper.
 
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