NHS ‘Check before you tick’ campaign returns

Helping patients understand their entitlement to free prescriptions
NHS England and NHS Improvement is re-running its ‘Check before you tick’ campaign and sending pharmacies updated materials.

About ‘Check before you tick’

The campaign aims to help people understand their eligibility to receive free prescriptions and how to claim correctly.

It encourages people to use an online eligibility checker tool from the NHS which takes less than five minutes to complete. The checker can be accessed by searching ‘Check before you tick’.

Understanding how and what can be claimed is important so that people who are not eligible for free prescriptions know how to claim correctly and avoid a penalty charge of up to £100.

For those who need to pay for prescriptions, the tool highlights alternative methods of support to help with NHS costs such as the NHS Low Income Scheme.

Driving national awareness

A national burst of activity is running from October 2019 for 10 weeks and will use a mixture of radio, video-on-demand, out-of-home and social media to help people

understand their eligibility and encourage them to always check before claiming free prescriptions.

Materials to help you support patients

Pharmacies will receive ‘Check before you tick’ materials as part of an ‘NHS Winter Pressures’ pack to be delivered in early November by the Healthcare Distribution Association. Alongside materials for display, the pack contains a pharmacy team booklet to help aid conversations with patients. The materials are intended to be used all year round to help communicate the importance of checking eligibility at the point when prescription forms are completed.

Further resources including alternative formats of the booklets in audio, large print, easy read, BSL and braille will be available from the Campaign Resource Centre: https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources