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Doctors & medications

Posted in Belgium forum

I spend a lot of time travelling, stay a couple of weeks in Belgium every now and then, and a fair time in Greece.
I have noticed that the medications I used to be on in the UK are ALL still available in Belgium. Can anyone tell me the best way of going about getting a 90 day supply of three or four medicines I miss since they were withdrawn here? The alternatives I am getting on the NHS just do not have the same effect and as a result I am nowhere near as well as I could be. (I am registered disabled).
Thanks for any help. The most important would be Xanax 2mg tablets and Lysanxia 40mg. I'd also need an analgesic like hydromorphone, because I have grown tolerant to my NHS Oxycodone.
MICHAEL McCULLOUGH

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  • posted by  in Belgium forum 

    With my EHIC I was being reimbursed 80% of the cost of medicines. You pay the price and it takes a couple of days to process the refund, so in fact, though all medicines on the NHS are free for all now, the cost of meds in the EU with that card (which replaced the old E111 forms) is exceedingly cheap. For instance, a bottle of Roche Lexotan 12mg x 50 purchased at my pharmacy is €13.99 but I end up paying only €2.75.
    The amount of reimbursement depends on the country, in my case UK, that the EHIC was issued in.
    A month supply of sleeping tablets, Hypnocalm 2mg, cost just over one Euro. So in fact the €25 fee for the doctor appointment is well worth the cost; and Gaver Apotheek have informed me that they are a pharmacy which accepts prescriptions written on official UK (Scotland) Private Prescription forms, as they also run a mail order service, except for Schedule II narcotics like oxycodone, hydromorphone and dextromoramide, in which case all patients must present in person or, if unable, by a proxy, family member or friend able to sign for the medications required.

  • Go to Thomas J's profile

    posted by  in Belgium forum 

    Good luck, remember doctors visit in Belgium is approx. 25 EUR and as foreigner, you will have to pay full cost of medicines yourself. this compared to the UK where the NHS would reimburse it, it sounds a bit odd.

  • posted by  in Belgium forum 

    Surely this is enough for a Belgian family doctor to write my prescription?

  • posted by  in Belgium forum 

    I have been on benzodiazepine treatment, including Xanax, but currently, because of UK price, on 10mg lorazepam and 8mg clonazepam daily. As for analgesia, I am on 80mg Oxycodone but have grown tolerant. I have had Lysanxia 40mg tablets from a Belgian pharmacy in the past, with prescription.
    In fact my current doctor is in Greece, I only use the NHS when returning to the UK every 3 months or so; I am unable to afford the price of Oxycodone in Europe.
    My doctor in Greece could write a letter or even a prescription; a lot of my meds like oxycodone and hydromorphone are not available there but EU legislation allows prescriptions written in any member state to be dispensed in any other. In reality it depends on the pharmacy, so a doctor's letter would be essential. I know that the medicines I require are available in Belgium. My pharmacy there, not far from Brugge, where I am a registered client, has them all on their price list, of which I have a copy.

  • Go to Thomas J's profile

    posted by  in Belgium forum 

    No doctor wil prescribe this stuff to a person not his regular patient.

    I am not 100 % sure how this works in the UK, but the usual way it works in Europe is that you go to your normal doctor, if you want a drug not on the local market, he will need to apply the medicines agency (in your case MHRA I guess, or maybe NHS) about a special permit (named patient basis). Once obtained you take your prescription (and your permit) and go to the local pharmacy, they will contact a special company handling such requests, who will then procure the product in question and supply it to them, whereafter you can pick it up.

    Procedure might be even stricter since hydromorphone is a hard narcotic.

  • Go to Tim Stoneway's profile

    posted by  in Belgium forum 

    Actually, Belgium is strictly regulated. You cannot go and buy these things over the counter, for that matter you cannot even get a cold sore syrup containing a bit of codeine without prescription. Your best bet would be go to a 'family doctor' in Belgium and show your British prescriptions and ask whether he can prescribe it. Nevertheless I am not so sure whether a family doctor can prescribe Xanax, in any case he can direct you to a specialist who can diagnose and prescribe. And once they are convinced I think you can get them whenever your supply finishes. For the family doctor, you can pick anyone near you, they need to open a file for you for a few quids, then you are set.

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