If you have diabetes that is treated by drugs or insulin and you are a citizen of the UK you are entitled to free prescriptions on the NHS. But you must apply for a Medical Exemption Certificate or be 60 years old and older. These certificates are issued by the NHS Business Service Authority (NHS BSA).
If you already have a certificate it has an expiry date, it is valid for 5 years. The NHS BSA allegedly sends out reminders close to when the 5 years expiry comes to an end. (This is so that you can renew in time. The certificate is back dated by 28 days so if you have collected a prescription there won't be any net charge.) The reminder is reportedly sent by second class post so is not guaranteed to reach you.
This is important because it is to catch you out so that you pay for your prescriptions. This is an under hand tactic to extort money from patients that are not careful with keeping records.
Your pharmacy and GP will not remind you. They will not have a copy of your exemption either. It actually doesn't matter to them who pays for the prescription - whether the funds are government or your own. So it is not their business to let you know.
In a 5 year span with no reminders you are likely to forget about the exemption certificate and can be paying for months without noticing.
The NHS BSA does not keep long enough records so that there is no way to recover your costs if you have paid for them. Even if you have had diabetes for a long time the NHS BSA will just say you did not have a medical exemption certificate at the time. This is a real problem and will catch a lot of people out.
The NHS BSA can not connect your Exemption to a NHS number (for trust issues where an employee might look up your personal details), it is not linked to address (or it might be linked to some and not others) and it is not linked to where you got your prescription from. So you are at a loss which ever way you turn. But if you collect any sort of government benefit it might be possible to connect that to your exemption.
(In most cases people with diabetes do not get any better and GPs recommend more drugs to control the symptoms of diabetes. So treatment tends to get more expensive as the diabetes gets worse. Treatment for diabetes is not free it costs the government. Who say treatment is free to the patient. BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE. Otherwise you will be billed. Now if you was not diabetic during the time where you forgot about your certificate that would be a blessing.)
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