Private Prescriptions
There are certain circumstances when you will be issued with a private prescription.
Your G.P. will issue a private prescription if the medicine he prescribes is not paid for by the N.H.S. for example certain travel vaccines, and malaria drugs.
Other Medical Practitioners such as Hospital Doctors or Consultants can’t write N.H.S. prescriptions, they will either write a private prescription or instruct your G.P. to write an N.H.S. prescription for the drugs they advise.
A private prescription form looks different 
from an N.H.S. form because it is normally written on the doctors’ headed note paper.
The big difference between the two is that, you must pay for private prescriptions.
Private prescriptions are priced according to guidelines set in place by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, and no V.A.T is charged.