Boots, UK's largest high street Chemist, is ripping off cancer patients, NHS - Sensationalist Headlines

The owner of Boots has been accused of “exploiting cancer patients” by charging the NHS £3,220 for pain-relieving mouthwash that can cost £93. The high street chemist benefited from a loophole in drug rules that enables suppliers to set their own prices for some unlicensed medicines called specials. Autistic children and cancer patients are among those being denied medications because specials are so expensive. Across the industry, high prices for specials cost the NHS as much as £30 million a year. Boots ordered the mouthwash, which is used to treat patients with severe sores caused by chemotherapy, at least five times from a supplier owned by its parent company, health records show. For each order the company billed the NHS for between £1,843 and £3,220 even though the equivalent quantity had been bought by other pharmacists for £93.42. The Times revealed in February that Boots billed the NHS £1,579 for a pot of moisturiser that other pharmacies had obtained for less than £2. It had obtained the cream from another supplier that its parent company owned at the time. In May 2013 Boots charged £3,219 to supply three 200ml bottles of mouthwash used by cancer patients in extreme pain. Two months later it billed £3,220 for the same. Last year Boots also charged £1,843 for an 800ml treatment, £1,989.12 for 800ml and £6,374.25 for 2,600ml. The specialist mouthwash contained a very small amount of cocaine, which is lawful in some medicines. All of the orders were obtained from Boots’s sister company Alliance Healthcare. Walgreens Boots Alliance denied overcharging and said that all its businesses fully complied with all legal requirements. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times (Paywalled content) Boots aren't the only retailer that is doing this but they are the biggest - just about every town in the UK has a branch of their stores, often several.

This is the accepted standard in the US, just with our privatized healthcare insurers instead. Hopefully you all in the UK can prevent it from getting that bad.

what i dont understand is how someone from upper mangerment can look at this and go "yeah this is ok" for years.

Money.

Isn't Crony capitalism great guys?

Fucking parasites can choke on the money, this is blatant profiteering from the misfortune of others.

Lawful, fine, but is this a good idea?

This reminds me of a case where a "Doctor" would prescribe a normal El-kettle to cancer patients, claiming that kettle was a new kind of invention and that the water would cure them. Pretty stupid but it worked on a lot of people. I supposed desperation makes you believe in almost anything and that makes you a very easy target. In my option this comes really close to actual manslaughter. Discussing.

The Times revealed in February that Boots billed the NHS £1,579 for a pot of moisturiser that other pharmacies had obtained for less than £2. It had obtained the cream from another supplier that its parent company owned at the time. christ