Private prescriptions are medications which your private Doctor or Consultant has recommended for you on a private prescription form. A prescription for medication is a legal document for which the doctor who has issued and signed it is personally responsible. A private prescription may include drugs or other items not currently recommended by the NHS for your condition or specify a particular brand of medication.
Prescribing responsibility is not simply transferable. This means an NHS doctor - who hasn't had the benefit of your private consultation/ examination - cannot simply convert a private prescription to an NHS prescription. Equally, a doctor you have paid to see privately can’t issue a prescription on the NHS.
It is Gold Street Surgery's policy not to convert private prescriptions to NHS prescriptions. A private prescription is not written on an official NHS prescription and will not be paid for by the NHS. The costs of a private prescription must be met wholly by the patient, and is dictated by the cost of the medicine plus the pharmacist's charge for supplying it.
Similarly, hospital prescriptions should be dispensed by the hospital, NOT brought to the surgery.
There are also some medications which your NHS doctor may recommend (such as travel vaccinations), but for which the NHS does not pay. The patient has to pay for them, even though they may be given by the surgery, to recover the costs of the medicine, administration and staff time.