Cost of medicine

J

joyofliving

Registered User
I was visting a Dr Choy in Central till recently. She had prescribed me Metformin and Materna (Mutli vitamins) which her nurse gave me everytime. Yesterday I bought the same medicine from a leading pharmacy on Queens Road Central and there was so much difference in price.

Metformin I bought was for 114 HK$ as compared to 400 HK$ the doctor gave me (For 1 month dose)

Materna I bought for 100 HK$ as compared to 420 HK$ the doctor gave me (1 bottle)

Has anyone had similar experience? Why was the doctor over charging me so much? I am confused.
 
I've experienced the same thing. Went to an ENT doctor who prescribed me nose spray for 400 HK and found it at a pharmacy in Central for around 150 HK. I think its a way for them to make more money. Now I just ask for the medicine name and buy it at the pharmacy.
 
Private doctors are always going to charge you a lot more than what you would pay at a pharmacy. That's just the way it is.
 
will they get offended if you just ask for the brand name and go buy it somewhere else? especially given the price difference? I think the doctors are assuming everyone is covered by insurance, hence, ok to charge the expensive medicine.
 
sometimes the doc will say pharmacies wont give it to you without a prescription...so i'd buy it from them the first time and after that i'll just purchase it myself at the pharmacy.
 
Well firstly I didn't think the doc would be charging me 4 times the actual cost of medicine due to ethical reasons. Secondly her nurse never gave me a prescription (Alright my fault I never asked for one). But then I did not know medicines in HK could be bought OTC until a friend of mine told me so. I guess there still might be people like me unaware and could maybe take a clue from this thread.
 
my experience with doctors in hk is that they never write prescriptions, because they assume that you will buy the medicine from their clinic. So medication just gets written in my record and then the nurses will dispense and then I pay. fortunately, my insurance has covered me on this so far. But anything pregnancy related is not covered.
 
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