Get Your NHS Prescriptions Delivered for Free

Get Your NHS Prescriptions Delivered for Free – Plus a Trick to Save on Prescription Charges

If you regularly collect NHS prescriptions, there's an easy way to save yourself a trip to the pharmacy — you can have your medication delivered to your door for free.

Pharmacy2U lets patients registered with a GP in England order eligible NHS prescriptions online and have them delivered by Royal Mail without paying a delivery fee.

And if you normally pay for your prescriptions and need several medications, there's another NHS scheme worth knowing about that could save you considerably more.

Get NHS prescriptions delivered for free

Pharmacy2U is an online pharmacy that can receive your NHS prescriptions, dispense your medication and send it directly to an address of your choice.

There's no charge for NHS prescription delivery.

You'll still need to pay the normal NHS prescription charge if you're someone who pays for prescriptions, but Pharmacy2U doesn't add a delivery fee on top.

Most NHS prescriptions are sent using Royal Mail tracked delivery, and Pharmacy2U says you can have them delivered to your home or another chosen address.

How to get free prescription delivery

1. Register with Pharmacy2U

Sign up with Pharmacy2U and provide details including your name, date of birth and GP surgery.

2. Nominate Pharmacy2U as your pharmacy

This allows your electronic NHS prescriptions to be sent to Pharmacy2U rather than your usual local pharmacy.

3. Order your prescription

You can order eligible repeat prescriptions online. You can also continue ordering through the NHS App once Pharmacy2U is set as your nominated pharmacy.

4. Your GP approves it

Your GP will still need to approve your prescription as normal.

5. Pharmacy2U delivers it

Once the prescription has been received, checked and dispensed, Pharmacy2U packages your medication and sends it to your chosen address.

Delivery of NHS prescriptions is free.

Already get your prescriptions for free?

You can still use Pharmacy2U.

If you're exempt from NHS prescription charges, you can add your exemption details to your Pharmacy2U account.

That means you can potentially pay £0 for the medication and £0 for delivery, provided you're entitled to free NHS prescriptions.

It's worth checking whether you're entitled to free prescriptions before paying for them, as exemptions can apply based on factors including age, certain benefits and some medical conditions.

Paying £9.90 for several medications? Check this first

This is potentially the bigger money-saving tip.

In England, the NHS prescription charge is currently £9.90 per item — not per prescription.

So if one prescription contains three chargeable medicines, you could pay:

3 × £9.90 = £29.70

If you regularly need multiple medications, those charges can add up quickly.

That's where an NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate (PPC) comes in.

What is an NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate?

Think of a PPC a little like a subscription for your NHS prescriptions.

Instead of paying £9.90 every time you need a chargeable prescription item, you pay a fixed amount which covers your NHS prescriptions during the certificate period.

There are currently two standard options:

A PPC covers your NHS prescriptions during the period regardless of how many eligible items you need.

Here's how quickly the savings can add up

Suppose you need two prescription items every month.

Paying individually would cost:

£9.90 × 2 × 12 = £237.60 a year

A 12-month PPC currently costs:

£114.50

That's a saving of:

£123.10 a year

If you need three items every month, paying individually would cost £356.40 a year, compared with £114.50 for the PPC.

That's a saving of £241.90.

The more chargeable prescription items you regularly need, the more valuable the certificate can become.

You don't even have to pay the £114.50 upfront

Here's another useful bit that can easily be missed.

If you buy a 12-month PPC, the NHS allows you to spread the £114.50 cost across 10 monthly Direct Debit payments of £11.45.

So rather than finding more than £100 upfront, you can effectively budget £11.45 a month for 10 months and have your NHS prescriptions covered for the full 12-month certificate period.

The instalment option is available when buying a 12-month PPC online or by phone. You're committing to paying all 10 instalments, so don't treat it as a monthly subscription you can simply cancel when you no longer want it.

Can you use a PPC with Pharmacy2U?

Yes.

Pharmacy2U accepts NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificates.

Once you've got a valid PPC, you can add the details to your Pharmacy2U account. You can then continue ordering your NHS prescriptions and having them delivered without a delivery charge.

That gives you a useful combination if you're on regular medication:

Fixed prescription cost + free home delivery.

Check whether you qualify for completely free prescriptions first

Don't immediately buy a PPC just because you have several medications.

First check whether you're entitled to free NHS prescriptions anyway.

Depending on your circumstances, you may already qualify for help with prescription costs.

If you're entitled to free prescriptions, there's obviously little point paying £114.50 for a PPC.

The NHS has an eligibility checker you can use before buying one.

What about HRT prescriptions?

There's a separate scheme for certain hormone replacement therapy medications.

The HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate currently costs £19.80 for 12 months and covers an unlimited number of qualifying NHS HRT prescription items during that period.

If you mainly pay for HRT prescriptions, check whether the HRT PPC would be cheaper than buying the standard PPC.

Is Pharmacy2U actually free?

The important distinction is between delivery and the prescription itself.

Pharmacy2U doesn't charge for delivery of NHS prescriptions.

But that doesn't automatically make your medication free.

If you normally pay NHS prescription charges, you'll still pay those charges unless you're covered by an exemption or a valid PPC.

So:

NHS prescription delivery: Free
Prescription charge: £9.90 per item if applicable
With a valid exemption: No prescription charge
With a valid PPC: Covered by the certificate

The My Side Gig tip

If you're taking regular medication, we'd check things in this order:

First: See whether you're entitled to free NHS prescriptions.

Second: If you aren't exempt, work out how many prescription items you normally pay for each year.

Third: If you're regularly paying for multiple items, compare the cost against a 3-month or 12-month PPC.

Finally: If collecting medication is inconvenient, consider using a service such as Pharmacy2U to have NHS prescriptions delivered without paying extra for delivery.

It's not a huge complicated money hack — but if you're currently paying individually for several prescription items and travelling to collect them every month, you could potentially save money and a regular trip to the pharmacy at the same time.