Rumours Re Scrapping Prescription Charges?

People put in for items they would normally buy

But you can only buy a few at a time over the counter. If you get them via the GP you will get a months supply. If you’re on eg paracetamol you’d have to buy several boxes if you’re on them daily. And, if on aspirin it’s important for it to be on your medical record so that, in the case of an emergency the hospital knows what medication you’re on, especially with blood thinners. It isn’t just down to cost.

I think there should be a reconsideration of which conditions qualify for exemption. I understand that the thinking is that if you have some conditions you are more likely to need prescriptions for other things, but can see no reason why something like low thyroid function should attract free prescriptions for everything, but asthma should not (there will be other such anomalies too).

I don't think that access to health should be means-tested. People's income and outgoings don't work to a formula, and there could easily be people in a high-income household who don't have access to money of their own.

I would rather see fines for missing appointments (with tightened up communication about timings, and easy ways to cancel in time for the appointment to be reallocated) so that payment is in the hands of the patients who can decide whether or not to attend/cancel/miss them.

Maybee, 70, That's all very well if you have money up front to do it, for a lot of younger working adults on minimum wage it just doesn't work.
I don't live in England, are prescriptions still free for pensioners and children there?

Visgirl I'm 75 and not on any benefits and just on the basic state pension. After paying my bills, which are rising all the time, all I have left is £40 a week to cover things like Christmas, birthdays, holidays etc. I have to think twice about meeting up for lunch with friends. I haven't had a holiday for 15 years. So, no I will not be happy to pay for my prescriptions and I have quite a few items.

Free for everyone over sixty and children. People on benefits. People on thyroid medication and other long term treatment. Given that prescriptions are, I think, @ £10 now it’s surely better to pay £12 a month for a prescription prepayment certificate. And, from memory you don’t have to buy one for a year but can buy one for 6 months ( or three?) which isn’t as cost effective but still cheaper than paying for each prescription. They just don’t publicise PPC’s enough. I used to tell everybody about them but no one else did.

my understanding is the high alcohol prices in Scotland and the higher charges for buying a property (equivalent to stamp duty) help subsidise prescription charges . Higher prices to buy a property in Wales too.

As a side issue I was in the pharmacists the other week and although there was a few non prescription items in the man's shopping basket the bill came to £240 . If he had a Boots card then some items would have been cheaper and to be honest he looked over 60yrs old.

About the only thing the Welsh government has done right

How Prescriptions Are Funded in Scotland

• Abolished Charges: NHS prescription charges were completely eliminated in Scotland on 1 April 2011, meaning Scottish NHS prescription forms issued and dispensed in Scotland are free of charge for patients.

• General Taxation and Block Grants: Free prescriptions are not funded by stamp duty (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in Scotland, or Stamp Duty Land Tax in England/UK). Instead, the overall cost of NHS Scotland—including pharmacy reimbursement and the abolition of prescription fees—is funded through general taxation and the Scottish Government's general budget, which is financed via Westminster block grants (calculated through the Barnett formula) and Scottish devolved tax revenues (such as income tax).

Doodledog, my DIL has low thyroid function and this can fluctuate so she might have to have 2 different prescriptions to get the right dose. Furthermore, having low thyroid is likely to predispose her to, High Cholesterol and Heart Disease,
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Pernicious Anaemia, Depression and Mood Changes, etc. Furthermore, Thyroid disfunction is often related to Hashimoto's disease which is an autoimmune disease which leads to further problems. I can tell you that so far she has to have regular Vitamin B6 injections, pain killers for the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, anti-depressants, plus a host of other drugs for the Ankolysing Spondialitis which has been triggered. Personally I feel that just being afflicted with all those problems and continuing to work more than deserves the odd benefit. As a lowly paid childcare worker she would be hard pressed to pay for all her prescriptions.

Asthma is a difficult one. Some people will be afflicted on a daily basis. Others will be afflicted on occasions if they have a cold. Perhaps like diabetics, it should be dependent on the extent of the condition.

I can't help thinking that if Wales and Scotland can fund free prescriptions, we should be able to provide the same. People who are regularly ill often don't have access to adequate sick pay so they can't afford to pay for prescriptions if they can't earn.

I'll be happy to pay for missed appointments when the Royal Mail deliver the mail efficiently. Whilst I am happy to use a digital service, many people are not able to do that so if their mail doesn't arrive on time, they cannot know they have an appointment.

Nanny27

I queried this after my Husband's heart attack in 2009, as it formed part of his new prescription list.

Low dose aspirin were available over the counter then and cost peanuts (even less peanuts now).

The Chemist said that the NHS preferred it to be part of a repeat prescription as they worried that if the patient ran out and 'meant to get a pack when next shopping' they could easily forget and that could have very serious repercussions for some.

Made sense.

I take a 75mg low dose Aspirin by choice and have done so for about 25-years after ready a newspaper recommending doing so from the age of 40. My husband started then too and his Consultant said that his heart attack would have probably been much worse if he hadn't taken them. Then, as said, they became part of his repeat prescription.

Mine are difficult to buy now as few places stock them to sell over the counter. Luckily I have found a Pharmacy that will.

(Good also for any adult to start taking one a day a week or so before a long haul flight)
.

WelshPoppy

About the only thing the Welsh government has done right

The previous Welsh government.

PollyEsther, how rude to say that most wasted prescription meds are created by “old people “! IME older people are more likely to be more likely to use meds correctly and not hoard than younger people who often do not finish the course or forget to take them, or don’t like taking them. I say that as a retired clinician.

Scots pay more tax to allow the choice of free prescriptions, university etc. The English seem averse to any idea of raising taxes when they come to vote in general elections. When you look at some European countries with very high taxes - they benefits they have access to are what many of us might aspire to.

My mother, many years ago, was on free prescriptions due to epilepsy. She said that when she picked up her prescrption there was another customer asking the pharmacist which items were the most important as she couldn't afford them all!
The other problem is that if you get free prescriptions for a specific condition it applies to all prescriptions so if you get prescribed antibiotics for a short term infection, they would be free too! That doesn't make sense to me. There are many anomalies with the system so maybe they just think it will simplify things and save money overall, but as someone said upthread, if things are free people don't always appreciate them! At one time I was on free prescription for my diabetes but also had a certificate for free prescriptions as I was on tax credits as a low earning single mum. Now I'm free because I'm a pensioner!

2507C0

PollyEsther, how rude to say that most wasted prescription meds are created by “old people “! IME older people are more likely to be more likely to use meds correctly and not hoard than younger people who often do not finish the course or forget to take them, or don’t like taking them. I say that as a retired clinician.

I'm sorry you found it rude, but I still think it's probably true. The majority of prescriptions are for elderly people and many of them are repeat prescriptions, so it stands to reason that most "wasted" prescriptions are for the people who make most use of them. I would have thought that if a person pays for a one-off prescription, it's more likely to be used.

I have known a few people who have cleared out their parents' bathroom cabinets and found boxes of unused medications. I've seen them myself..

I'm not sure what kind of clinician you were, but I also had experience of dealing with elderly people and their ailments.

icanhandthemback I have both asthma and a dysfunctional thyroid (with attendant pernicious anaemia). I wasn’t suggesting that sufferers from either condition should be denied free prescriptions -I’d rather they were free for everyone. Asthma can be fatal, as I’m sure you know, so it seems to me odd that prescriptions are charged for asthmatics. I have three inhalers (and occasional steroids in tablet form), and would hate to be in a position where I couldn’t afford any of them.

I agree about the communication problems surrounding appointments, which is why I said they would have to be sorted out. I do still feel that (assuming people know that they have been made) that cancellation is in their own hands, so raising money from fines is fairer than means-testing. It might be too complicated though. Carers and people with remitting problems could well be disadvantaged if they were unable to attend at the last minute.

Doodledog, I am aware that asthma kills as my Nan died from it as did a friend of mine. It was devastating. I think they should be free too. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more tax to cover it. My only reservation about higher taxes is that quite a lot of taxpayers money is wasted and I do resent that. It would be interesting to know if the countries who pay more tax and have better services, have the same amount as wastage as we seem to.

Chestnut

A college tutor said never to give people something for nothing, they don't appreciate it. We see this with the NHS in general, people missing appointments for instance.

They should publicise the prescription pre-payment certificate (PPC) and maybe increase the number of illnesses that qualify for an exemption certificate.

The pharmacy also needs to see the exemption certificate when someone signs the back of the prescription and says they are exempt. As far as I know they simply hand out the medicine without seeing proof they are actually exempt.

My surgery posted to numbers of did not attend. It was huge, but given the number of phone appointments and the doctors do not wait for an answer, I can see that it is not always the patient's fault

For those asking why England can't just give out free prescriptions like Scotland and Wales maybe think about this:

Population (approx)
England - 58.8 million
Scotland - 5.5 million
Wales - 3.1 million

Can you just send Andy Burnham over here? We have to pay for so many things medical that we have to budget for it as we get older ( instead of holidays !) I think I am falling in love with your PM.

M0nica

The cost of primary health prescribed medications is well over £10 billion a year. What would you tax or what expenditure would you cut to finance this.

What is needed is more publicity for the Prescription 'Season ticket'

How did Wales and Scotland finance this measure?

Health, social services, and taxation are among powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament since 1999 . NHS Scotland is now different from NHS England in many respects.

Wales has had free prescriptions since 2006,,NI frpm 2010, Scotland since 2011.

At the time Prescription charges were dropped, iirc it was said that such a small proportion of the population paid any charges, adminstration of collection absorbed most of the income.

Right now, only 11% of people in Engl;and pay prescription charges. How much is it costing to administer exemptions, and pre-payment certificates, and collect charges?

There should be a charge. I also think the price of the drug should be shown as well so people realise what they would pay outside the NHS and perhaps appreciate what they're getting.

Respectfully, icanhandthemback, if you have insulin dependent diabetes, the condition is permanent, and life threatening.
Without insulin injections, my DD would be very unwell, and then dead, in quite a short period of time.

I thought this was supposed to be about a rumour that everybody would get free prescriptions, not discussing whether more people should pay.

I think that the fact that the current system isn't always fair is a very good reason for making prescriptions free for everybody.

I'd still like to know how much it costs to administer the charges to the 10-11% who do pay.