Consultation on Proposal to abolish NHS Prescription Charges
Foreword to Prescription Charges Proposal by Colin Fox , MSP
CHARGES UNDERMINE FREE HEALTHCARE PRINCIPLE
Two key questions tend to confront this proposal to abolish NHS prescription charges in Scotland. First of all why after 52 years is it now necessary to scrap them? And secondly if 91% of patients qualify for exemptions at the moment, isn't it therefore a rather peripheral issue?
I understand these concerns. Indeed had the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff not recently voted to abolish charges entirely across Wales the case for doing so in Scotland would be immeasurably more difficult to argue on grounds of timing and priority.
Equally while the vast majority of patients presenting to GP's do currently qualify for exemptions, as this proposal attempts to make clear, there is often no rhyme nor reason why some are liable to pay the charges and others not. Abandoning the charges as well as making the system fairer would bring to an end the arbitrary and contradictory logic behind the exemption criteria.
As the cost of scrapping charges is relatively minor, I hope that we can go the extra few yards and restore the simple principle that underpinned the foundations of the NHS - if you were ill you got treated. Not if you were ill and could afford £6.30 for each medicine!
The idea behind this proposal is therefore quite simple, to ensure that no one is prevented from accessing necessary medical treatment through insufficient means. Unfortunately at present there are those in our society who cannot afford the cost of medicines their GP's have prescribed for them.
The charges may well have been introduced in 1951 but that doesn't mean it was right to do so. This proposal aims to look at the impact of that decision and to rectify what I believe was a mistake.
I look forward to your response and will forward them to the Scottish Campaign to Abolish Prescription Charges.