Prescription
charges
Patients with long term conditions
benefit from abolition.
Hundreds of thousands of Scots with long
term conditions are better off as a result of the abolition of prescription
charges.
Latest figures show that since 2007/08, the
number of items dispensed for long term conditions such as asthma, Crohn’s
disease and diabetes has increased year on year, demonstrating the benefit of
removing the barrier of cost.
Since charges were scrapped in 2011, there
has been an increase of more than 10,000 items for those with Crohn’s disease
and nearly 237,000 items for those with asthma.
It is estimated that around 2 million, 40
per cent of the Scottish population have a long term condition.
In the same week which marks one year to go
to the referendum on Scottish independence, the policy is being held up as
example of how decisions about Scotland are best taken in Scotland.
Health Secretary Alex Neil said:
“It is my firm belief that healthcare should be free
at the point of access for everyone and that is why we scrapped prescription
charges for all patients in 2011.
“Where we have the power to take decisions in Scotland, there are clear
benefits for the people of Scotland.
“Prescription charges were nothing more than a tax on ill health that
Scotland's poorest families could ill afford, and I am proud that in Scotland
we took the decision to improve access to prescriptions for all.
“Scotland’s health service continues to
lead the way, with take up of free eye examinations growing, and free personal
care for all.
“We are also at the forefront of
introducing innovative public health measures, such as minimum unit pricing of
alcohol and standardised packaging for cigarettes.
“There is also a marked contrast between
Scotland’s approach to the NHS, based on its founding principles of being free
at the point of care, while privatisation in England is growing ever more
pronounced and damaging.
“I have been very clear that the mutual NHS
model we have in Scotland is the right model for providing the very best care
for patients.”
In contrast, patients in England pay £7.85
per item or £104 for an annual pre-payment certificate.
Rhianna Humphrey, 25, is originally from
Ely in Cambridgeshire but is now studying in Glasgow.
She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis
in 2005 at the age of 17, and knows the difference the abolition of
prescription charges has made.
She said: “As a self-funded postgraduate
student in Scotland, who needs medication every day probably for the rest of my
life, if I had to pay prescription charges, I would be faced with difficult
decisions whether to get my prescription or ensure I could pay my bills and
rent, as I did when I lived in England. I felt I had to pay for having a
long-term condition and this definitely had a negative impact on me.”
Debi Haddleton, who has inflammatory bowel
disease, and lives in England said:
“I need my medications to keep well and in
work. I need to pay out constantly and if I did not then my health would suffer
considerably. I feel penalised by having to pay for being ill when, if I
lived in Scotland, I would not have to worry.”
“People
with long-term conditions in Scotland do not face the barrier to effective
treatment that those in England still do.
As a result of an unfair, outdated and arbitrary system of exemptions,
research shows that many with long-term conditions in England are severely
compromising their health through being unable to afford prescription
charges.
“Since
this system was scrapped in Scotland, those with conditions such as asthma,
rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and heart conditions, who need
medication on an ongoing basis throughout their lives to keep them well, or
even alive, no longer have to face impossible decisions between paying for
essential medication or feeding their family or covering rent or heating
costs.”
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