Paphos Life

I finally got my Doc to register me for my regular prescriptions and after years of either driving North to pick up cheaper drugs as well as by buying whilst in Italy where over the counter drugs are less than half the price they are here I set off for the Pharmacy clutching my €3 .
Things went swimmingly well with the first prescription Amlodipine €6.77 normal price , GESY contribution €5.77 my payment €1 . Then Atorvastatin normal price €8.76 but GESY contribution only €6.37 my payment €2.39 and finally the Olartin normal price €10.25 Gesy contribution €4.13 my payment €6.01 . So instead of €3 I paid €9.40 which is only a few bucks less than I pay up North and in Italy.
I then got an E mail from Gesy saying that my prescriptions had been logged and my co-pay of €3 had been debited from my total of €150 a year . Whereas my actual co-pay was €9.40
Is this normal ?
Confused of Paramali

People were led to believe that all GESY prescriptions would cost €1 per item.

However, in each category (eg diabetic medicines or antibiotics or heart medicines etc) only certain items are charged at this price, but the Personal Doctor may not necessarily think this particular item is the correct one for a particular condition eg antibiotics and select something that costs more. In this case €1 is allocated to the item and the patient pays the remainder. I always ask the pharmacist how much a prescribed item will cost and then ask if there is an equivalent cheaper item that will have the same effect.

From the GESY website: ''Does the GHS reimburse any medicine prescribed by a doctor and does it reimburse it in full?

The GHS will compensate for all medicines included in the GHS Catalogue of medicines.

The GHS will fully reimburse the cheapest medicine from each category of medicines included in the Catalogue. In the case that the beneficiary chooses another medicine from the Catalogue (which belongs to the same category), the GHS will compensate for the amount, that is equal to the cheapest and the beneficiary will have to pay the difference (Contribution II)''.

Strangely my heart consultant for years has been prescribing a certain Ramipril tablet.. Under Gesy it is listed at €0.45. But this week my GP has put down a different make of Ramipril tablet and that is over €9-00. I was not happy about this and mentioned it to the pharmacist who changed it back to the cheaper one.. He felt he could do this as I had been on the cheaper one for a number of years..

Our joint prescriptions are now over €26 every month, a lot more than the original 50 cents per item, sometimes for 3 months! Not to mention blood tests at €11 or €12. At least the elquis is being prescribed, which was out of our reach before at €87+ every month! So, swings and roundabouts! Overall we think it is a good service.