Prescription Charges May Be Increased

Prescription charges in England should be increased to £10 to fund cash-strapped NHS services, a centre-right think-tank has argued.

Reform says raising the price tag from £7.85, with exemptions for people on low incomes but not necessarily all pensioners, could generate millions of pounds each year.

Around 90% of prescriptions in England are currently dispensed free of charge.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have scrapped all prescription charges.

The British Medical Association has previously said the current system is "unfair" and wants prescription charges to be scrapped in England.

But with the NHS funding shortfall expected to reach £30bn by 2020, Reform says the time has come to consider higher charges for medicines to help plug this gap - although it accepts that such a move would be unpopular with many.

Thomas Cawston, Research Director at Reform, said: "Few will want to debate higher NHS charges but the funding outlook for the service makes it unavoidable.

"Prescription charges are the easiest route to new revenue, with exemptions for people on low incomes built in."

Prescription charges in England currently raise £450m a year, against a total government spend on prescription services of £7.9 billion.

A simple increase in the level of the charge for prescriptions from £7.85 to £10.00, and in the cost of a Prescription Prepayment Certificate (a way of bulk-buying prescriptions to save patients money in the long term) from £104 to £120, would raise an additional £134m annually, for example.

Or, moving to a French-style system, with a lower prescription charge of £3.00 but exemptions for only a fifth of drugs dispensed, would raise £1.4bn a year, according to Reform.

Other revenue-generating ideas include introducing a £10 flat rate charge for GP consultations or £10 fines for every missed hospital appointment. These would pull in £1.2bn and £55m a year, respectively, Reform estimates.

If cash is so tight in England, where did they find the billions to pay for a rail link from London to Birmingham? Aren't the priorities a bit skewed?

As Scotland is going to vote for independence from Westminster, I wonder if England could do the same ...

Re: Prescription Charges May Be Increased

They need to either make them free for us all or have less exemptions, when I queue up here I am often the only person paying out of a queue of 15 or more. I often look round at the cars these people get into when they leave and think well if they can shop in waitrose and drive that surely they can pay for their prescription ?

I often look at prices by how long I will need to work to pay for an item and those of us on NMW already work one hour for each item on their prescription list £10 will mean many of us just pick and choice what we pick up, I can do with out my painkillers if I don't work perhaps that will be the way to go !!

Re: Prescription Charges May Be Increased

Since my accident I have been on three different tablets a day (for the last three months) plus my inhalers (2 different types) for asthma as well as antihistimines which I have to take everyday.

When I go to the doctors I have to ask them to print each one on different forms so that I can pick them up at different times because it is far too expensive to get them all at once.

When I was off sick I was only getting ssp which when you take into account all the tablets I was on the money soon disappeared.

A price hike would certainly make me think twice before taking lots of tablets and asking the doctor to only give me the ones that I really really need. Which considering it is going to be 12-18 months before I am fully fit I will have to make serious decisions on what I take.

Re: Prescription Charges May Be Increased

You might find it cheaper to do what we do Shirley, we get a pre paid prescription card http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/PPC.aspx it looks expensive but if you can afford the lump sum and take a lot of meds it does work out cheaper.

Re: Prescription Charges May Be Increased

Thank you for that information Julie1962 we were told about this card towards the end of my three months of paying for prescriptions.
I am at hospital again on Wednesday so will ask how much longer I may need to take the meds and then will have to pay out the lump sum to make it easier. I forgot about all the stronger pain killers I need to take which you can only get on prescription as well.

Is there any wonder why I rattle.