Prescriptions: From today, only the English have to pay for prescriptions (and no, that's not an April Fool's joke!)

 

From today, only the English have to pay for prescriptions (and no, that's not an April Fool's joke!)

By
Sophie Borland

Last updated at 9:24 AM on 1st April 2011

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Scottish patients can collect free prescriptions from today – leaving England as the only country in the UK still charging for them.

English patients will be charged £7.40 for every item prescribed by a doctor – an increase of 20p – but Scotland today joins Wales and Northern Ireland in abolishing the charges.

The move means that English patients are effectively subsiding free drugs for those living elsewhere in the UK.

 

Paying up: People in England will now face a 20p increase in the price of prescriptions - while the rest of the UK will get them free

Doctors and charities claim the charges are ‘absurd’ and could potentially cost lives as poorer people may be discouraged from getting vital drugs.

It is also further evidence of a medical apartheid in Britain which sees patients in the devolved nations benefiting from higher spending on healthcare per head, even though they pay less tax.

 

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The elderly in Scotland are entitled to a weekly allowance to go towards care home costs or other services while those in England are forced to pay, unless they have assets totalling less than £23,000.

 

Confusing: BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said that the Government should abolish charges and that many of the exemptions were unfair

Scottish pensioners also receive free eye tests while those in England pay £19 a time.

Ministers claim that it is not possible for England to abolish the charges because it would leave the NHS with debts of £450million a year.

But Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association Council, said: ‘The Government should not be increasing prescription charges; it should be following the lead set by the three other nations in the UK and making plans to abolish them. 

‘The bureaucracy needed to administer prescription charges is cumbersome, many of the exemptions are confusing and unfair.

'Patients with disabling long-term conditions still have to pay them despite a recent report recommending they be phased out. 

‘Most importantly, the principle of charging for prescriptions runs counter to the founding principle of an NHS that is free at the point of use.’

Neil Churchill, chief executive of Asthma UK, said: ‘Scotland’s decision makes the rise in prescription charges for people in England a bitter pill to swallow.