Tips

I’ll post here any tips/advice I pick up along the way. Links to the relevant pages will be included in the sites side menu.

Prescription Charges

Once you have a diagnosis for cancer you will become exempt from prescription charges. Prescription charges for cancer patients were abolished on April 1 2009. In terms of cost savings this will be massive. Ask your consultant for an exemption certificate. An early visit to my consultant saw a prescription for medication which was going to cost me over £32.00 as each item on a prescription is charged separately. Some days of during my treatment cycle I can be taking an excess of 30 tablets per day for various things.

Exemption certificates will be issued to those applicants who, in their doctor’s judgement, are receiving treatment for:

• cancer
• the effects of cancer, or
• the effects of current or previous cancer treatment

Guidance about the extension of the list of medical conditions has been issued to doctors. It includes guidance on who the new medical exemption is intended to cover.

• January 19 2009 – Guidance issued to GPs and oncology depoartments defining cancer patients (PDF, 18kb)

Parking Charges

Hospital parking can be very expensive Sunderland Hospital is £7 per day and I can average 3-4 appointments per week. Some hospitals have their own arrangements for cancer patients so speak to your nurse or consultant to see if there is any assistance for you. Sunderland Royal Hospital has a Macmillan office on site. They have 4 reserved parking bays and will book these for you to use if they are available. They are not free unless you are a blue badge holder but they are handy if the hospital car park is full. If like me your diagnosis has caused mobility issues then you may qualify for your areas blue badge scheme. I’ve included a link to the Sunderland scheme. Registration involved the completion of a form, submitted with a passport photograph and a £10.00 fee. I also had a short conversation with the local authority when they called to discuss my application. If you don’t qualify for any assistance then check with the hospital to see if you can buy a long term pass. Before I qualified for my badge we were able to buy a monthly parking permit from the hospital for £15.

Personal Independence Payment. Having cancer is not a guarantee that you will qualify for PIP. You must have a long-term health condition or disability and have difficulties with activities related to ‘daily living’ and or mobility. You must have had these difficulties for 3 months and expect them to last for at least 9 months. If you’re terminally ill (i.e. not expected to live more than 6 months), you don’t need to have had these difficulties for 3 months.

I’ve submitted my own claim because of my own personal circumstances at the moment but I have no idea if my claim will be accepted or not. I felt it was important to add this as a tip though as you may be entitled to make a claim. The other important point to note, and one which was news to me, was that PIP is not means tested so even if you are working you may qualify. This may be important to you, particularly if you are unable to go to work and aren’t entitled to sick pay above statutory sick pay.