bcworld

Confused.com. So the first item on the list was £3.95 with a quick google. But £8.40 for a prescription item? Maybe the NHS is turning a profit on GF prescriptions!

jad n rich

OZ has its madness too. You can buy a pack of 100 paracetamol in chemist warehouse for a buck. Or 1c if you buy other items.

But health care card holders ( up to the limit getting free scripts ) get it medicare, charging the taxayer X times the over counter price.

A smoker on one pack a day ($35) spends about $12,000 pa on cigarettes. Obviously its beneficial for them to give up. But if you can spare 12 k a year to smoke why is the taxpayer subsidising your patches?

Once every 12 months counselling too, more sessions than someone with depression. Hardly going to work if you can go back and get it free again next year is it?

Keyboard on this computer seriously dodgy. sorry.

jad n rich

Re gluten free food. Quick look at 2 UK supermarkets, they both have the same type of GF foods as Aus supermarkets. Didnt seem hard to find at all.

I prefer not to eat foods with gluten, simply because they make my normal weight range body type, stomach/waist swell by 4/5 inches. Its like a balloon.

Aside from bread which can be tricky, nature provides thousands of gluten free foods. I don't need the packet and box stuff from supermarkets.

Most of our food comes from the Vietnamese markets in melbourne, crazy cheap, fruit, veg, fish, eggs, meat, you can easily buy any grain/lentil,pulse type foods from the sack. Did same on sunshine coast but markets there are tourist/ trendy so more expensive.

Chemicals are the worst enemy. Ditched most of our cleaning products for cheap white vinegar and bicarb. If we have to use chemical stuff use half the recommended.

spouse of scouse

Coeliac disease is a horror, and gluten free foods are expensive compared to 'ordinary' products. People don't have choice whether or not to eat, so I don't see making gluten free food available on prescription as any different to prescribing medication to treat other diseases/conditions.

Symptoms of coeliac disease
•severe or occasional diarrhoea, excessive wind and/or constipation
•persistent or unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting
•recurrent stomach pain, cramping or bloating
•any combination of iron, vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency
•anaemia
•tiredness
•sudden or unexpected weight loss
•mouth ulcers
•hair loss (alopecia)
•skin rash (dermatitis herpetiformis)
•tooth enamel problems
•depression
•liver abnormalities
•repeated miscarriages
•neurological (nerve) problems such as ataxia (poor muscle coordination) and neuropathy (numbness and tingling in the hands and feet)

spouse of scouse

You were talking about the 'ridiculous' things people demand on prescription. My response was that if such things weren't available on prescription, people wouldn't be able to 'demand' them. A fairly innocuous exchange, I would have thought.

You really need to take a chill pill, instead of arcing up at people the way you do. Ask your pharmacist, it might be available on the NHS

ozzieeagle

Can someone explain the benefit of a scan in store system please. In Australia if an item is priced wrongly in one of the two main supermarkets Coles or Woolworths and you pay for it at checkout and realise it's wrong you get that item refunded and given to you free at the information desk.


A scanning error occurs when an item has been scanned, or the correct PLU (Price Look Up) number entered, and a price higher than the advertised or ticketed price displays at the checkout or on the receipt.
Single items
If a single item scans at a higher price than the advertised or ticketed shelf price for that item, we will give you that item FREE.

Multiple identical items
If multiple, identical items scan at higher price than the advertised or ticketed shelf price, we will give you the first item FREE, and the remaining items at the advertised or ticketed shelf price.
Other promotions.

Multi Buy – i.e. 2 for $3 - first item FREE and the second item at the correct promotional price ($1.50 each).
Buy one, Get one Free/ Spend $30 – get %15 off – The promotion will be honoured; no free item will be offered.





Pssst....

The best day to get these free items is on a Wednesday the day they change their weekly price specials You need to have gotten through checkout first to get the item free otherwise they will just change the price before you pay..... So self serve is the way to go.

Amazulu

I know what coeliac disease is - our friend's daughter has it but she doesn't get gluten free food on Medicare - and doesn't expect it. A benefit too far IMO

No wonder the NHS is broke

moneypenny20

I think it's outrageous to get food on prescription. My daughter is GI and she knows what she can and can't eat. She doesn't eat processed shit and laughed when I suggested getting stuff on prescription. It's remarkably easy to eat GF. She's 21. If she can work it out anyone can without getting special treatment from a struggling NHS. Regardless of the disease, the patient should be capable of sorting out their own diet.

Dreamy

I can perhaps understand the need for it when gluten free substitutes were only available in specialist health food stores - but I doubt it's necessary when these food items are available in pretty much every food outlet.

And as you say, there are plenty of naturally non-gluten items to be able to eat without needing the substitutes in the first place.

spouse of scouse

Different strokes for different folks, Zulu.

I've just had the most delicious piece of orange, almond and cardamom cake in Margaret River, I'm way too blissed out to argue

googley2

Just to clarify a few comments. You can only get GF food on prescription when you are officially shown to have it with a blood test. BUT it also depends on which area you live now as to what you will get. As many have said due to GF foods now being much more easier to purchase some NHS Trusts will no longer provide them on prescription.

Secondly the idea of getting all those nonsense items on prescription is totally idiotic. Most drs will now only give prescriptions for essential meds only. No-one gets prescriptions for general toothpaste, vitamins, etc. I have a chest infection for 4 weeks and seen 3 drs, nobody would give me anything even though I was really ill. Eventually I returned to see the original dr and he said enough now and gave me antibiotics and steriods, it felt like Christmas to finally get an essential prescription!! Times have changed and so has the NHS - its not about getting extra any more its about fighting to get what you really need.