Prescriptions

[ShiftZZ]

We are due to travel Europe for at least two months, spoke to my surgery this morning, the most they can prescribe is two months. Oh Please!.

is it possible to buy some drugs over the counter in Spain? Without a prescription?

 

[Mikeco]

We have bought them many times and just showed them the prescription you get at home, bought some Amatriptaline yesterday, € 1.20 for 24

 

[Richard n Ann]

Yes just take the box into a pharmacy, no questions asked

 

[Taran_Las]

My surgery allow up to 3 months.

 

[2657]

Depends what they are.
I used to get my 56 day prescriptions a week early for a few months and build up a stock.
Mine are all available here quite cheaply anyway, if you take your old prescription with you it helps depending on the drug.

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[bobnick]

Online repeat prescription at the surgery i use tells you the date you can order your next lot. Try ordering early they wont approve it.
I have requested and got max of 3 months worth.
Don't know about Spain but in Dubai one can buy over the counter almost all you need except Antibiotics??

 

[Viennese]

Mine has agreed to do 6 months.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

They should arrange for 3 months on a request.ours is currently 2 months as standard issue,but as has been advised start to order your prescriptions a week earlier every time you reorder and you can end up with a month in hand. Handy as well if there is a domestic shortage of items.

 

[bobnick]

Shows how it can vary across the country and how you order the repeat. Jim are you Cheshire West?

 

[ChrisSue]

We are due to travel Europe for at least two months, spoke to my surgery this morning, the most they can prescribe is two months. Oh Please!.

is it possible to buy some drugs over the counter in Spain? Without a prescription?

They might hold back any dangerous ones for you until after your boyos play Italy

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[BooBooKing]

Actually your surgery has no obligation whatsoever to prescribe medicines for you while you are on holiday. Those surgeries who decline to prescribe more than a month at a time are virtually always forced to say that by their local prescribing "advisory" groups who basically make the rules. You can buy whatever you need in Spain.

 

[15isto2]

Probably depends what the drugs are whether they will sell you them OTC

 

[John Barrett]

I bought Amoxicillin OTC in Benidorm without a prescription. It cost just pennies!

 

[daveinspain]

It is illegal to supply antibiotics in Spain without a prescription. I have never had any problem obtaining any other drugs - just take along the old packet.

 

[Sapper520]

If we tell our GP we’re going away and ask for more than usual, she’ll do it as a one off.

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[Folkranger]

We are due to travel Europe for at least two months, spoke to my surgery this morning, the most they can prescribe is two months. Oh Please!.

is it possible to buy some drugs over the counter in Spain? Without a prescription?

Try Amsterdam, Plenty of drugs available.

 

[Jim]

Our Welsh surgery would only give us a month. We needn't have worried, in France, Spain and Portugal the medicines we needed, were easily obtained and cheap. So cheap I remember we bought extra back as a buffer for when repeat Welsh prescriptions messed up, which they often did.

 

[DelMar]

I always tell our surgery how long We will be away and what we need, with a little extra to make sure I don’t run out when we arrive home. Up to now this has worked and we are usually away for 10 weeks. I have bought paracetamol there once, which was a bit expensive, I think we paid about £6.

 

[Fontie]

We have bought them many times and just showed them the prescription you get at home, bought some Amatriptaline yesterday, € 1.20 for 24

If you have to pay for your prescriptions that's way cheaper. I take Amitriptyline for my IBS started at 50mg before bed, now settled on 20mg 50 was wiping me out for the day and 20mg slows things down enough with 4mg of Imodium when i wake up.

 

[Richard n Ann]

I always tell our surgery how long We will be away and what we need, with a little extra to make sure I don’t run out when we arrive home. Up to now this has worked and we are usually away for 10 weeks. I have bought paracetamol there once, which was a bit expensive, I think we paid about £6.

You can get paracetamol/codene 500/30mg over the counter in Spain.
We keep a box handy for emergency pain relief. The codene chills you out

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[15isto2]

Actually your surgery has no obligation whatsoever to prescribe medicines for you while you are on holiday. Those surgeries who decline to prescribe more than a month at a time are virtually always forced to say that by their local prescribing "advisory" groups who basically make the rules. You can buy whatever you need in Spain.

Interestingly in a primary care forum recently there was a discussion on increasing the length of scripts for stable patients on low risk medications, it was the pharmacists whos heads were exploding at the thought of 3 6 or even 12 month scripts due to less of income. Having said that most CCG's do still seem to think than month prescribing makes things more cost effective

 

[scotzsue]

Will see how i get on when we get back from Hawick or possibly before need to count up my meds, same GP different pharmacies up until a couple of months ago john got 3 months at a time and I only got one, his pharmacy now only gives out 1 month at a time, so we are both bu**ered now. Am sure I will be able to buy abroad, but we don't even get a copy prescription any more. May well be having fun once i have a negative result.

 

[Just smiffy]

I just took my old packet of pills and got whatever I needed and was only a few euros, however my asthma inhalers were €25 each..

 

[Madcaravanner]

We are due to travel Europe for at least two months, spoke to my surgery this morning, the most they can prescribe is two months. Oh Please!.

is it possible to buy some drugs over the counter in Spain? Without a prescription?

The NHS in England allow up to THREE months though some surgeries try not to
BUT beware some now say that IF you go away for 3 month then you WILL be removed from their panel
We are away for 10 weeks so are OK and I have got 3 months supply (asked for an extra month as they had only supplied 2 x 4 weeks and from ordering was 11.5 weeks
We have a re-order date online due whilst we are away so we WILL be ordering and our daughter will collect not having this again

The problem started for us when our surgery was taken over by a larger group
Our old GP (who has moved into health management ) used to just print off two 2 month repeat prescriptions problem gone but the new practice manager already is making me mad

 

[royandsharont]

ShiftZZ My understanding is that whilst different GP practices have different rules, and some like ours only give 1 month but others give bi monthly prescriptions, the NHS rules covering all English prescriptions are that you are entitled to a max of 3 months supply, if you are on holiday and away from U.K.

I did ask the department via email who issue the pre payment cards when we had to pay, who confirmed the rules.

We personally have been getting 3 months supply twice a year since 2012 pre pandemic for our holidays. I think at first we had to fully explain why etc and our travels but after then it was just a request saying holiday meds.

Having said that I bet when we start travelling again we’ll encounter some difficulties starting again but I am confident we shall. Our GP surgery actually dispense our meds so no chemist shop involved

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[Soots]

We are due to travel Europe for at least two months, spoke to my surgery this morning, the most they can prescribe is two months. Oh Please!.

is it possible to buy some drugs over the counter in Spain? Without a prescription?

My surgery will prescribe 3 months for a holiday.

 

[Minxy]

I've been able to get 3 months worth in the past with a special request but now I just order them as early as I can to build up a stock, ie a monthly one can be ordered every 21 days, a 2 monthly one every 49 days. As I pay if I get my ordering done at the right time I can get 6 months worth out of a 3 month prepayment cert.

 

[JockandRita]

We too are able to get 3 x months supply, by seeing our GP first before heading off.

I just took my old packet of pills and got whatever I needed and was only a few euros, however my asthma inhalers were €25 each..

Garry, if you registered with the local Spanish GP surgery, a prescription charge would have been €2.50 per inhaler.

I was taken off Seretide, and put on to this inhaler by a Spanish GP.

The Pharmacia wanted €45.00, but because I had a prescription, I got it for €4.50.


Cheers,

Jock.

 

[bobnick]

Thinking maybe i should come off the computerised "Patient Access" system to order my repeat meds.
It being computerised and tabs are normally in 28 day packs the system will not let you order more than 1 or 2 days before due date. The date of your next order is clearly stated.
For additional holiday tabs the request box is there to ask. It has always worked fine for me.
In anycase i can always, if needed get a top up month or two over the counter in Dubai that are not expensive at all.

 

[Carpmart]

Small batch prescriptions are such a false economy for certain medication.

I take Thyroxine for what is now, after radiation treatment a zero producing thyroid gland. This entitles me to free prescriptions too (crazy BTW) which my doctors will only issue on a 56 day basis. Thyroxin cost the NHS virtually nothing, genuinely one of if not the cheapest drug they issue. I’m very stable on 150 micrograms per day, so why not remove the bit that does cost the NHS and the patient, the administration and the issuing and make a logical lowers cost move and prescribe it to me annually.

The annual drug cost to the NHS is something in the order of £18 for the physical medication. The administration cost six or seven time per annum are probably hundreds of pounds…

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