probably get in trouble sharing this but....

[Westdene Seagull]

There are stats on the internet, it just needs trawling through to see what they actually are.

They can only publish what they know about - by it's very nature most fraud will probably go undetected.

 

[beorhthelm]

i cant help but feel the bill was nearer to £95.00

a quick look on coeliac site suggest it effects 1% of the population. the bill for 1% of benefit claimants to receive 9500 a month would run to billions.

 

[Scampi]

wheat-free pasta and bread on the NHS. 9.5K worth! I watched it get added up.

I'm sorry but your story just doesn't add up. By my calculation that amounts to £ 17 per person per meal (3 meals a day). A loaf of wheat free bread costs approx £2.50.

 

[mistahclarke]

I'm sorry but your story just doesn't add up. By my calculation that amounts to £ 17 per person per meal (3 meals a day). A loaf of wheat free bread costs approx £2.50.

that my friend is the problem, that's supermarket prices, not the NHS costs to us. The prescription through the system adds on to the cost of the food.

I'm not making it up, and my own research into the unit system backs up the person as not flaunting any rules, just highlighting the inefficiency of the system and the mark-ups involved. My research into cost was with pharmacist friends. who confirmed the costs as correct.

hence my earlier comment on how it would be cheaper and easier if the NHS just gave these people food vouchers to use at a supermarket for a fraction of the costs.

 

[WATFORD zero]

As a Coeliac I am entitled to a small amount of Gluten-free food on prescription every month. I have a Pre-paid prescription certificate which costs £10.50 per month, and the food I get would cost around £30 if bought at a supermarket.
There is no way that a family could get thousands of pounds worth of food on prescription as the amount allowed per person is regulated.

I am confused now - did the chemist charge them £9,500 or did you calculate it ?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I don't condone how Vulture said it but isn't this exactly what he is doing but in reverse ? i.e. he blames the Labour government but many Labour supporters still blame the Thatcher government despite over 15 years of Labour government ?

Very strange !

Oh for heaven's sake!

Can't we blame the Attlee government for the NHS? And the Gladstone government for everything that's wrong with education?

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

I dont know how much it is in the UK but my injection cost around 1000 a month. As I would probably die without them Im rather grateful I dont have to pay.

The interesting thing here is though because of the cost, in the UK you have to pass ALL THREE tests to get the injections. If you don't you are called IN LIMBOLAND and get nothing... which means effectively they know you ahve MS but they don't want to pay for it.

This is under the Tories and Labour.

I wonder how you would feel if you knew and your doctor knew you had a life-threatening condition and you couldnt afford it and the govt refused to pay?

 

[bhaexpress]

fair play to your attitude mate, and it is the NHS costing that I have problems with. They should get vouchers from the NHS and buy the stuff from a supermarket for a fraction of the price.

That's quite right. There will always be people who will play the system if it's there to be played with. Unfortunately in so doing they put far more deserving causes in a bad light.

 

[bhaexpress]

Oh for heaven's sake!

Can't we blame the Attlee government for the NHS? And the Gladstone government for everything that's wrong with education?

I don't blame any government as it's the same people who actually manage the Welfare and Benefits system whoever is in power.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

she asked for it to be delivered but it wasn't that much, and it was all on prescription, she had a handful of them, 50 or so. the girls said she's does it every month when I moaned after she left for holding me up.

it was pasta, pizza bases, burger rolls, hot-dog rolls.

So something that is dispensed under a doctor's prescription, where the patient(s) are exempt from paying the prescription charge, was rung through the till?
That's not the way it's done - the obvious point being how would you balance the till at the end of the day/week/month as it's £9.5k short?
I think you're just making this up - 0/10.

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

that's almost my years salary FFS ( yes i am poor )

 

[Scampi]

that my friend is the problem, that's supermarket prices, not the NHS costs to us. The prescription through the system adds on to the cost of the food.

I'm not making it up, and my own research into the unit system backs up the person as not flaunting any rules, just highlighting the inefficiency of the system and the mark-ups involved. My research into cost was with pharmacist friends. who confirmed the costs as correct.

hence my earlier comment on how it would be cheaper and easier if the NHS just gave these people food vouchers to use at a supermarket for a fraction of the costs.

Sorry mate but this still doesnt stack up. Who is charging the nhs for this food?

 

[sams dad]

Sorry mate but this still doesnt stack up. Who is charging the nhs for this food?

I think the point the original poster is trying to make is that the suppliers of Gluten-free food on prescription, charge the NHS far more than the cost of equivalent food in the supermarkets. His argument is that vouchers should be issued to Coeliacs, who could then exchange them for Gluten-free food. In this way the cost to the NHS would be reduced.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Nothing will get done about this sort of sharp practice unless somebody phones it through as a potential front page story for the Daily Mail.

 

[mistahclarke]

So something that is dispensed under a doctor's prescription, where the patient(s) are exempt from paying the prescription charge, was rung through the till?
That's not the way it's done - the obvious point being how would you balance the till at the end of the day/week/month as it's £9.5k short?
I think you're just making this up - 0/10.

I said added up, didn't say it was rung through. It's what I was told the cost was.

10/10

don't believe me if you don't want to, it really doesn't bother me, I was just highlighting something I initially thought was a scam, did some research after posting it with some information provided and realised it's the cost provided by the NHS for processing it.

But, if you don't believe me you may want to keep your opinions to yourself unless you do some research. i.e you could ask a pharmacist before discrediting me.

 

[beorhthelm]

But, if you don't believe me you may want to keep your opinions to yourself unless you do some research. i.e you could ask a pharmacist before discrediting me.

a pharmacist above say it should be about £100. a question not anwsered is why the pharmacist would be totting up the cost there and then, rather than the pre-pay prescription cost of £10.50.

a sanity check on the numbers. £9500, assuming split 6 way is £1583 ea. for the unemployed (2.5 million) alone it would be £475million. someone said the amount costs £30 in the supermarket. £1500 for £30. i know your point is precisly that it cost so much more, but does this sound remotely sane?

if this is the fee to the pharmacist for dispencing, thats an average of nearly 60k per pharmacy every year (theres about 8000 of them). they are know to be wealthy, but not that wealthy.

if you are sure that you saw what you saw, and theres not a decimal in there (and why you'd see it remains unexplained), i'd say there was a scam involved.

 

[BHAmex]

Takes the piss really and goes to show the problem with this country

 

[Cian]

Its quite amazing what stuff costs the NHS. Recently someone I know had to have a skin cream made up specially and it was bought as a NHS prescription charge. The tub consisted of vaseline and liquid asprin and was charged to the NHS at £750!!!!

Pharmacists get paid ridiculous amounts of money for extemps compared to the amount of time it takes to do them but £750 sounds like someone's on the fiddle.

About 40% of my employers business is pharmacy related so I see the inside of lots of them; down to one woman being removed by the police when she went mental cause her GP had reduced how many pizza bases and vitamin fortified shakes and yogurts she was prescribed. The shakes/yogurts are designed for extremely frail elderly people and are painfully expensive - they're not intended for podgy 30-somethings who are fit and able enough to throw stuff around a pharmacy!

The wheat-free foodstuffs do cost the NHS/HSC/HSE more than they'd cost in pharmacies as they need to cover the cost of individual orders of a small quantity to each pharmacy rather than the bulk deliveries supermarkets get, and pay any fees to the pharmacy for dispensing them; so food vouchers *would* be cheaper but would be hard to police to prevent them being spent on other random food products.

 

[KNC]

blame f***ing brown and blair and the rest off the new labour twats and the well off lefties on here that have no f***ing idea that backed them.Labour have f***ed this country for ever with their open policy and buying votes for scroungers by giving them benefits galore c u n t s and I hope the english never forgive them for destroying their country

I don't like scroungers either, but I think you may find that a larger amount of money, has been 'screwed' out of this country by the rich avoiding the tax they should pay. Osbourne is sorting how much he can save on his inheritance, as we speak.

 

[mistahclarke]

a question not anwsered is why the pharmacist would be totting up the cost there and then, rather than the pre-pay prescription cost of £10.50.
.

heard not seen, in the discussions after the person left. I can't go into more detail as I don't want to get people into trouble.

The figures are correct, the cost of the 57 prescriptions to the taxpayer was £9500, and this is a monthly occurance.

as to the figures of 2.5 million unemployed, if coeliac disease affects only 1% of the population, that your figures need to be re-calculated.

if this family are unfortunate to all be affected, then this case is an extreme example of the problem.