Should prescriptions be free for the whole UK?

[0iD]

With prescription charges already abolished in Wales & soon be free in Northern Ireland by 2010 and in Scotland by 2011, why not England?

At currently £7.10 an item I believe it's already way too high and the whole argument of Public health minister Dawn Primarolo who said that "In England, 89% of prescription items are dispensed for free, the remainder provide valuable income to the NHS, which goes towards to the safety and speed of healthcare." is complete rubbish (imo). Unless, those that can pay, in the whole of the UK, do so.

[GheeTsar]

I like the idea of free prescriptions, but at what cost to society? That income will need to be plugged from the public purse if it goes ahead which means something else suffers or taxes go up. I think there should be free prescriptions for those that genuinely can't afford them and keep the charges for those that can.

[Blitzen]

I think it should depend on what the prescription was for.

If its something like anti-biotics then it should be free.

If its ointment to cure galloping dandruff for example, it should cost double

[Saracen]

Well, I have no idea of whether that 89% figure is correct or not, but it may be that it is. There are already certain groups that get free prescriptions. As I understand it, kids do, the elderly do, those on benefits do and some medical conditions mean you do too.

I also understand that cancer is being added to the list of conditions which will result in at least some entitlement.

But what about those on modest incomes with chronic conditions. I know of one couple with a total, joint household income well under £20k, before tax, where husband and wife both have chronic conditions that require several monthly prescriptions.

And there's anomalies too. Apparently, an under-active thyroid results in free prescriptions but an over-active thyroid doesn't, despite a GP friend telling me the latter is a trickier condition to treat as the under-active can be dealt with by a supplement.

And what about hypertension? Untreated, it severely elevates risk of both stroke and heart attack, either of which result can result in large bills for the NHS treating conditions that would have been prevented with proper medication, but again, you get no help with the costs for that.

I can understand why the NHS isn't going to pay for a bottle of cough syrup every time someone gets a mild throat infection, or a bottle of aspirin for the occasional headache. But surely, if we're all paying taxes and NI contributions to fund the NHS, it's iniquitous that an under-active thyroid is funded by over-active isn't, or that extremely serious (if untreated) and potentially deadly conditions like hypertension aren't.

But at the end of the day, the NHS has a limited pot of money, and you can only spend it on one thing. If you spend the extra (£417 million, apparently) making prescriptions free, then either you cut that from some other NHS budget, or you increase the budget.

Well, if you want that one solved, give me free reign with a pair of budgetary scissors and I'll raise that extra £417 million in no time flat. The first thing to go will be the national ID card system, and then I'll start looking at excruciatingly expensive government IT projects, like the NHS national records database, whereby your personal, named medical records will end up on a central database to be accessed by anyone in a wide range of places that has access.

Naturally, governments tell us that such data will only be accessible by "authorised" staff. Well, quite, but experience tells us that the list of who is "authorised" will creep, and do so silently. Knowing the skill levels demonstrated by government sp far in keeping confidential information confidential, it'll probably all get copied onto CDs and lost in the post, or left in a taxi somewhere. After all, if they can't keep secret military information secret, or your tax and banking details to themselves, why should medical records be any different?

So should prescriptions be free? Hell, yes. And dump that obnoxious government mania for centralising databases to pay for it.

[Ferral]

I don't mind having to pay for scripts, however when there is more than one item it can start getting expensive. I think you should just pay one price regardless of how many items.

Its even worse if you are off work on the sick only pulling in SSP and have to pay for scripts, every penny counts when you are on a low income due to illness. I really think in a case like that I think they should be free.

Last year when I was off work for 5 months due to back injury after a car smash every 2 weeks I was having to get scripts from my docs for codeine and some nerve type tablet also. Worked out at £28 per month apprx then there was the over the counter stuff I had to get for pain also. Soon adds up.

[chuckskull]

The NHS is meant to be free at the point of need. In my opinion, paying for prescriptions goes against this. Not to mention that over 500,000 people do not get their prescriptions because of the cost and are not eligible for free prescriptions currently.

Currently the NHS receives 400mil(about 5 percent of it's budget) a year from prescription charges, a number which is set to drop dramatically as NI and Scotland's free prescriptions schemes begin, along with free prescriptions for cancer patients and (planned for) people with long term diseases in England. I'm guessing that once all the current plans are implemented this will drop to 1 or 2%. So the difference budget wise would very small, in exchange for a large improvement in many peoples lives.

End of the day, the majority of our nation will soon have free prescriptions, why shouldn't England?

[irfangoldfsd]

I think diagnostic should be free but prescription should be charged but not much expensive.

[TheAnimus]

The problem is also down to how you're prescribed, i was been prescribed my asthma inhaliers (Preventative and the Reliever) on a 1 month at a time basis.

This ment i had to pay 2 fees per month, if i used them a lot, twice a month.

Then my new doctor changed that so i don't have to mess about getting my perscription filled so often, and it stayed the same price, been prescribed 3 times as much.

The cost varies a lot depending on how your prescribed the stuff.

What really grinds my gears is that students have to pay for meds, but lazy arse scum don't

[Saracen]

I don't mind having to pay for scripts, however when there is more than one item it can start getting expensive. I think you should just pay one price regardless of how many items.

Its even worse if you are off work on the sick only pulling in SSP and have to pay for scripts, every penny counts when you are on a low income due to illness. I really think in a case like that I think they should be free.

Last year when I was off work for 5 months due to back injury after a car smash every 2 weeks I was having to get scripts from my docs for codeine and some nerve type tablet also. Worked out at £28 per month apprx then there was the over the counter stuff I had to get for pain also. Soon adds up.

There are prepayment certificates for that type of situation. You can get a four month one or an annual one.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but it works out cheaper to get the certificate if you have something like 5 or 6 items in that four months, or about 14 in a year.

Actually, I've checked, and they're now 3-month or 12-month.

- £27.85 for a 3-month PPC; and
- £102.50 for a 12-month PPC.

By my calculations, that works out at marginally cheaper if you have four items in three months or 15 in 12 months, and after that, it gets cheaper (per item) as usage goes up because you don't pay any more after that.

So nobody, provided you know about it should be paying more than £102.50 per year.

[chuckskull]

I think diagnostic should be free but prescription should be charged but not much expensive.

This is what's going to kill you. Now pay us or we'll let it.

Sounds an awful lot like extortion.

[kalniel]

I wonder if prescriptions were free, would more people tie up GP resources or pressure their GP into prescribing something when they don't need it?

[capt_cornflake]

There are prepayment certificates for that type of situation. You can get a four month one or an annual one.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but it works out cheaper to get the certificate if you have something like 5 or 6 items in that four months, or about 14 in a year.

Actually, I've checked, and they're now 3-month or 12-month.

- £27.85 for a 3-month PPC; and
- £102.50 for a 12-month PPC.

By my calculations, that works out at marginally cheaper if you have four items in three months or 15 in 12 months, and after that, it gets cheaper (per item) as usage goes up because you don't pay any more after that.

So nobody, provided you know about it should be paying more than £102.50 per year.

Beat me to it, but these should really be promoted more.
It does seem that very few people seem to know about them.

[Saracen]

Beat me to it, but these should really be promoted more.
It does seem that very few people seem to know about them.

Indeed. A friend of mine had been on multiple prescriptions for years and didn't.

Of course, it takes a GP about 15 seconds to mention it when he's prescribing to a patient that needs multiple items, but my friend's hadn't.

My GP also tells me when a med he's prescribing can be bought cheaper over the counter than the £7.10 prescription fee, and that's worth bearing in mind too - not all items need a prescription, and some are cheaper than the prescription fee if you just buy over the counter.

[Lucio]

Out of interest, how many people know how much those medicines actually cost? The prescription charge *isn't* for the medicines themselves, which frequently cost far more than the charge, but in fact is to cover the administration of processing the prescription and checking on whether or not it's a) legitimate and b) to keep track of where the medicine is going.


It's not an ideal system, and yes more should be done to advertise the pre-pay system, I've not met many people outside the health services that's actually aware of them, heck some GP's I've been with had to ask their receptionist about the scheme.

[Netjock]

I agree it should never be free but there should be a safety net the reasoning is:

1. If it isn't free then it is an incentive for people to look after themselves and not get sick.
2. If they do get cronic illness (bad genes or just strokes of bad luck) they should be given a safety net (ie. first 500 a year in scripts is charged then the rest is free etc).

Prevention (of illness/diseases) is better than a cure. We (people & government) take too much of a short sighted view to health (because it is winning the next election that counts), it isn't the qantity of life (prolonging life with drugs) but quality of life (when you are old).

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I think it should depend on what the prescription was for.

If its something like anti-biotics then it should be free.

If its ointment to cure galloping dandruff for example, it should cost double

disagree. if its something like asthmatic inhalers, those should be free but if its a one off medicine then that should cost something but £7 is too freaking much though. £5 is more then enough.

If you have a long term illness like asthma, its stupid if you have to pay for it every time, redicolous.