Why can't we have free prescriptions?
By Jayne Warren - 09/04/2009
It is now two years since prescription charges were abolished in Wales, and many people think it’s high time the scheme was extended to English patients as well. The Scottish Assembly plans to abolish all prescription charges by 2011, and the issue is currently under review in Northern Ireland. But for the UK, what about the estimated loss of revenue to the NHS - which is estimated at £435 million in the next financial year?
NHS prescription charges are paid by patients for drugs or other treatments prescribed for them by a National Health Service medical practitioner. As from 1st April 2009 the basic NHS prescription charge in England is £7.20p - an increase of 10p from April 2008.
Also from April 1st 2009 people who are undergoing treatment for cancer will be able to apply for a certificate which will give them exemption from prescription costs. Many other people also qualify for exemption, including children under 16, pregnant women, people over 60, young people in full-time education, people in receipt of certain benefits such as Income Support or Jobseekers' Allowance and people suffering from specific conditions, such as certain types of physical disability, diabetes or epilepsy.
Then there are Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPC) which offer considerable for those in need of regular prescriptions, and the NHS Low Income Scheme which provides income related help to those not already exempt from NHS charges.
However, many organisations who deal with chronic illness think this doesn't go far enough. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh Secretary of the BMA
said: “It is ridiculous that for two years now patients in Wales have been able to visit their GP without worry or fear of being able to meet the cost of any subsequent medication needed, when those same patients, who can be just a few miles across the border in England, have to pay an increased cost each year.”
When prescription charges were introduced in 1952, the founders of the NHS regarded it as antithetical to the notion of a service "free at the point of use" - and it is clear that the controversy continues to the present day. The "exemptions list" had not been updated since 1968, and it excludes a number of chronic conditions that have become highly prominent since then. Despite the findings of the Wanless Report in 2002, which condemned the system of exemptions as "illogical", The Government has repeatedly indicated its unwillingness to reconsider it.
Dr Lewis added: “As it stands at the moment, the current system in England seems totally unfair, especially when you have patients who may require medication over a prolonged period, yet are not exempt from the list, or those whose incomes are very low, but just above the levels required to trigger the exemptions.
“In these cases, prescription charges can act as a disincentive to taking essential medication. And scrapping them could even reduce hospital admissions and help people return to work more quickly following illness. The argument used by some critics of free prescriptions that millionaires will use them to pick up items like bonjela for free, doesn’t really stand up. The statistics show that almost a third (20.3 million) of prescription items dispensed in Wales are for cardiovascular treatment. A further 19% (11.5 million) are for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
"I urge health chiefs in England to follow the example set by Wales”.
The British Medical Association has long called for a fundamental review of the whole system of prescription charges and exemption categories, claiming there are "many unacceptable inequities and anomalies in the present system". They have also warned that there are many other groups of patients who require lifelong treatment, such as those with cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s Disease, who are more disadvantaged than some of those presently exempt."
Your views please!