Vet Prescriptions

[Zuzzie]

Does anyone know if its possible to get an equine vet prescription to cover TWO items. My gelding has two medications: Prascend and Equipalazone which are ongoing. My vet charges £24 for a prescription so I will be able to save money if I can get them both on one prescription.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

They can but they won’t. They will write two and charge for two, I asked this question years again and it’s just easy money so won’t

 

[Tiddlypom]

It's a prescription per med for me too, in my case Prascend and Danilon @ £25.50 a pop.

Still works out a lot cheaper than buying from the vets for 6 months supply, but even so. I'm not sure why two different meds for the same horse can't go on one script, either.

 

[quizzie]

…..because each script has a specific set of information that has to be on it by law, including pack sizes/doses and many other factors. And no it’s not easy money, it has to be checked and doubled checked against previous history etc, it all takes time….which is chargeable.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Ah ok, except that my human scripts may have multiple items on them, and presumably the same checks need to be made?

Not vet bashing at all, but vet scripts do seem to be an anomaly?

 

[quizzie]

You can technically put 2 different drugs on one piece of paper, but for the avoidance of mistakes and misunderstandings, it is normal practice to do one prescription per piece of paper. There are various statements that have to be on veterinary prescriptions that do not apply in human medicine.
You would normally still be charged for 2 items, just as at the doctors.
You would also be restricted as would have to get all the items from the same supplier.

 

[meleeka]

My lovely dog vet used to put 4 items on the same prescription. I haven’t had that since my old dog was pts though.

 

[ycbm]

Surely the charge is not for writing the prescription, it's for knowing what to put on the prescription and for taking the risk of the horse reacting badly to taking what's on the prescription? So double the drugs is double the price?

And since people are asking for prescriptions to get their drugs cheaper, not because a vet can't supply, it also makes sense to assume that the cheapest source for each drug may not be the same supplier and that two prescriptions should be supplied.

If there are two things on an NHS prescription then those who pay for their prescriptions pay twice even though it's on the same bit of paper, and in addition to that the drugs are for one month only since about 10 years ago when they used to be 3 months.

 

[Redders]

It’s not easy money at all. Writing the prescription takes minutes - finding all the info needed to go in a script, working out and knowing what to give at what pack size to last the right time, knowing the interactions and warnings And contraindications, knowing the dose takes a minimum of 5 years. That is what you (General, not you specific) are paying for.
different medications have different rules for different lengths of prescribing so one script for multiples won’t work, and one script for multiples also leaves us wide open for prescription fraud (which is really common and really annoying)
Plus Writing a prescription means I actually have to find an available computer and have at least 15 minutes (standard appointment length), often more time is needed, where I can sit I disturbed in order to write them and do them correctly. This hardly ever happens because we are so busy - yesterday I had 2 emergency surgeries (life or death) on top of the 7 planned operations I had to do and couldn’t cancel because the owners were unhappy at waiting an extra few days when we called them to postpone. That isn’t unusual.
Writing a script isn’t easy money at all! Nothing in my job is easy money (but it’s worth it because I live the creatures I am privileged to see everyday)
But I am very happy to do them, and offer them To every client where it is appropriate. If the cost of medication means the pet getting it or not then of course I’m happy for the owner to source it somewhere where they can charge clients less than we can but the drug in at wholesale prices

 

[Tiddlypom]

Thanks for that, Redders, but just to say that I would of course buy the medication in from the vets if there was no choice. It's not that my horses would ever do without, but as I can save a lot of money going to Viovet (several £100s a year), as I am free to do so.

I never quibble a bill, unless there is an obvious error on it such being charged twice for the same thing . I also always pay on time.

 

[Redders]

Oh I totally agree with saving where you can! I’m always offering prescriptions and if I’m starting a pet on a long term medication I recommend it to the owner. Got to save where you can! From a vet perspective, savings on drugs means I might just be able to do the test the pet really needs if funds are tight. I don’t buy my drugs unless emergency ones from my work as even the cost price is higher than online prices because we don’t have the buying power of the online pharmacies to get the best prices, and the pharmacies don’t have our overheads. I think eventually we will move to only holding emergency drugs, injectables and a small stock of common medications for instant access and write prescriptions for everything else because we just cannot get the drugs in cheaply and it costs so so much to actually run the pharmacy

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

When I paid for my personal scripts years ago it was one charge per script, not an individual charge per item. I was on four different types of meds. I had a prescription card that I paid for every three months and that got me my meds.

Human scripts have instructions, I currently take four medications daily and the instructions are on it. One is very carefully monitored and I can only get a months supply at a time, my others are two months at a time.

I queried the scripts with the RCVS, I’ll have to try to dig out the reply but I’m pretty sure the response wasn’t the info on the scripts.

ETA - Just went searching and found the reply from the RCVS and they have no rules regarding placing multiple items on a script and have said it is likely practice policy.

I was querying several things including that at the time.

 

[criso]

And since people are asking for prescriptions to get their drugs cheaper, not because a vet can't supply, it also makes sense to assume that the cheapest source for each drug may not be the same supplier and that two prescriptions should be supplied.

.

You can split across suppliers if you need to so that's not the reason. I used to get 3 boxes of Bute/6 months supply on one prescription but buy one box at a time. I had bad service from a company on box 1 so I went elsewhere for boxes 2 and 3.

However the forms my vet uses have a section for dosage/how to administer so that would be different for each drug.

 

[ycbm]

You can split across suppliers if you need to so that's not the reason. I used to get 3 boxes of Bute/6 months supply on one prescription but buy one box at a time. I had bad service from a company on box 1 so I went elsewhere for boxes 2 and 3.

However the forms my vet uses have a section for dosage/how to administer so that would be different for each drug.

That sounds a bit open to abuse. Does anything stop people sending the same prescription to several different suppliers and getting more to stockpile?
.

 

[criso]

That sounds a bit open to abuse. Does anything stop people sending the same prescription to several different suppliers and getting more to stockpile?
.

Obviously the prescription is under my name and address from the vet records so there is a complete paper trail and traceability of what has been bought with that prescription.


In theory the online pharmacy send the prescription back to the vet or report back for their records to reconcile, I don't know if that happens for every prescription in reality. If you did try it, you might get away with it but there is no way of covering your tracks should anyone check.

 

[criso]

Just to add l, that's not related to splitting the prescription. There is nothing to physically stop me uploading the same prescription to viovet, vetimed, petdrugsonline and vetsuk

 

[meleeka]

I think most online pharmacies will only now accept an email from the or the original posted to cut down on fraud.

When I had a prescription for my dog, one of the items was cheapest at my local pharmacy, so I was able to upload the prescription to the online supplier and then take the original to the local chemist. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to try and get the same drugs from multiple sources, but I suppose it was possible then.

 

[criso]

The ones I mentioned accepted uploads. Our vets handwrite them on site so I scan and emailed or upload.

Just checked the procedure is still the same

 

[Tiddlypom]

I too take a pic of my prescriptions and upload them to the website. I've never been asked to send off the hard copy.

 

[criso]

One time when the vet had forgotten his prescription pad he wrote it out later, scanned it in and emailed me the scan so I wouldn't have had an original hard copy to send.

 

[Zuzzie]

Thanks for all your replies guys. I just rang the vets and asked if I could have 2 items on one prescription. Was told no BUT if I order the two prescriptions at the same time, I can have a reduced charge on the second prescription (receptionist couldn't tell me how much the reduction was though). Something, rather than nothing!

 

[Gamebird]

We have an online pharmacy as part of our business, so we're pretty hot on dispensing guidelines. Prescription fraud is MASSIVE. You should only be able to get a prescription dispensed with a hard copy of the prescription. Unfortunately a lot of the big companies accept scanned copies. So person X gets a prescription for one box of bute/prascend (or expensive small animal drugs), and emails it to 6 different pharmacies, thus receiving 6 lots of medication when they were only authorised to have one.

In theory the online pharmacy send the prescription back to the vet or report back for their records to reconcile, I don't know if that happens for every prescription in reality. If you did try it, you might get away with it but there is no way of covering your tracks should anyone check.

This doesn't ever happen - and I don't think it's even supposed to. There's certainly nothing in the guidelines about it.. The only time a pharmacy might contact the vet practice that wrote the prescription would be if there was anything that didn't quite add up and might be an error, or if the prescription looked like a fake.

 

[Zuzzie]

Wow! this is news to me.

 

[Britestar]

We have an online pharmacy as part of our business, so we're pretty hot on dispensing guidelines. Prescription fraud is MASSIVE. You should only be able to get a prescription dispensed with a hard copy of the prescription. Unfortunately a lot of the big companies accept scanned copies. So person X gets a prescription for one box of bute/prascend (or expensive small animal drugs), and emails it to 6 different pharmacies, thus receiving 6 lots of medication when they were only authorised to have one.



This doesn't ever happen - and I don't think it's even supposed to. There's certainly nothing in the guidelines about it.. The only time a pharmacy might contact the vet practice that wrote the prescription would be if there was anything that didn't quite add up and might be an error, or if the prescription looked like a fake.

We had this once. The online pharmacy contacted the surgery as they thought that there was something odd about the prescription. If I remember correctly the owner had changed a date or quantity.
They were very embarrassed to be caught, and were told that any future scripts would be sent direct to their chosen company from the Vets.

 

[Landcruiser]

Ah ok, except that my human scripts may have multiple items on them, and presumably the same checks need to be made?

Not vet bashing at all, but vet scripts do seem to be an anomaly?

But your human scripts are subsidised via the NHS

 

[Redders]

You can have two items on the same prescription, but you will be charged for the both of them, not for a single prescription. So two fees but one piece of paper/electronic scanned copy. A fee is charged per item (due to reasons mentioned above about checking all medication suitability dosage etc) so it wouldn’t be cheaper to have on one, and the way they are set up on some vet systems means it’s often easier to do each item as a separate script