the white van pill man

[informashun]

around these parts every pharmacy employs a delivery man. this is great for some infirm etc.
but what about costs.
i presume this must come from making up scrips which
must be very lucrative and the original contacts by the gov. must never have included delivery payments.
anyone know how much chemists are paid per item per scrip?
no wonder the nhs is cash strapped.

[crete]

are the prescriptions delivered to people who are housebound maybe and have no family or friends to collect their medication. or the may be bulky items like oxygen cylinders or dressings,

[aka pixi]

our local chemist does a free delivery service to anyone whether or not you can get to the chemist yourself. We can even ring the surgery and order the prescription to be sent straight to the chemist to be filled out.

No idea how much it costs though

[samuel23]

After a major heart op my elderly mother needed an oxygen cylinder. She was house bound and couldn't lift anything very heavy. I offered to collect this for her and was surprised to learn the I couldn't. There were several reasons given, such as control of the whereabouts of these cylinders, health and safety of transporting the cylinders, patient care etc. The cylinders started off being delivered by an ambulance, then the visiting nurse delivered it. Finally it was dlivered by a private contractor. This was fine until, it ran out at the weekend and she was told she couldn't get a replacement until Monday morning. Fortunately the nurse brought one round. The answer from the NHS was that it is more cost effective to use private contractors for deliveries as they free up the (presumably more expensive?) time for the ambulances and nurses.

[alijangra]

Im not sure that they do charge the government for delivery, they are all in competition with each other and its their way of competing for your buisness.