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PBS criteria in plain words

Started 24 June 2026 · 12 replies · 82 hearts · read 1.8k times

TillyHereford, UK · 24 June 2026
4 weeks ago

Starting a thread on this because it keeps coming up in ones and twos: PBS criteria in plain words

Regional question, because I have read a great deal of advice that turns out to be true in one country only.

I am aware some of this may be nothing. I would still like to know whether other people have had it, because I have spent a fortnight assuming I am the only one.

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers this.

Thanks all. Genuinely.

27

HollisBath, UK
#1

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

7

TavitaApia, WS
#2

What the opening post described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

5

MarenBremen, DE
#3

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

6me too 2

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#4

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11

BevanSwansea, UK
#5

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

7

OzzyAdelaide, AU
#6

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

4

GusStirling, UK
#7

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

8

TamarPlymouth, UK
#8

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

6

NyreeChristchurch, NZ
#9

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

7

OttiHarrogate, UK
#10

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

8me too 4

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#11

I want to slow this down a little. There are four different answers flying about and they are all somebody's real experience, which makes them true and not necessarily relevant to the person who asked.

9

BronwenBarry, UK
#12

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

4me too 3