Charges For Repeat Prescriptions

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31635, 22 March 1968, Page 1

Charges For Repeat Prescriptions

It was common practice among doctors to make a charge for giving a repeat prescription for drugs already being taken, although they did not see the patient concerned, the press liasion officer of the Canterbury division of the Medical Association of New Zealand (Dr J. M. Louisson) said yesterday.

He had been asked to comment on a complaint that a patient had been required to pay 75c when he collected a prescription which was merely a repeat of an earlier one. Payment was requested at the doctor’s surgery, not by the chemist, because the drug was covered by social security. Dr Louisson said doctors regarded writing prescriptions as a professional service. One reason a charge was made was to exercise some degree of control — otherwise doctors would tend to be required to spend too much time answering telephone requests of this nature, and not enough time in their consulting-rooms. There was also the temptation for patients to treat themselves and the charge was made to discourage this. Dr Louisson said doctors in these cases did not claim for the social security payment as well. They were not allowed to do this unless they actually saw the patient and carried out a consultation. A Health Department spokesman said he understood some doctors did make a charge for prescriptions they were asked to repeat. There was no regulation against this, and it was up to the individual doctor whether he did so.