SCRAP Prescription Charges
The weblog of the Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges. Keeping you updated on all the news about Colin Fox MSP's bill to the Scottish Parliament.
Friday, January 21, 2005
MSP says half the cost of axing pills charge would be recouped
Evening News
£20m savings claim in free prescriptions fight
MSP says half the cost of axing pills charge would be recouped
IAN SWANSON
SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
NEARLY half the cost of scrapping prescription charges in Scotland could be recouped through savings elsewhere in the health service, it was claimed today.
Scottish Socialist Party MSP Colin Fox said the estimated £45 million that would be lost through introducing free prescriptions would be offset by up to £20m of savings, mostly as a result of fewer people needing hospital treatment.
The Lothians list MSP was today formally unveiling his Bill to abolish prescription charges, following the example of the Welsh Assembly, which voted to scrap the charges last year.
Mr Fox said: "Prescription charges are a lie to the promise the health service gave in the 1940s that it would provide universal healthcare free at the point of need.
"It’s not free and 75,000 people in Scotland have gone without the medicines they needed because they did not have the £6.40 per item for the prescription."
Mr Fox branded the current charges a tax on the sick. But he said an analysis of the financial impact of abolishing the charges, carried out by parliament officials, had shown large savings could be made through lifting the cash barrier to people getting medicine.
The revenue raised from prescription charges in Scotland last year was £45m. Exemption schemes cost over £1.5m to administer and more than £250,000 was spent on anti-fraud advertising, costs which would not be incurred if the charge was scrapped. But the biggest savings would come from the reduction in people needing hospital treatment as a result of not getting the right medicine.
Mr Fox said: "The civil servants believe that if 75,000 don’t get prescriptions because they can’t afford them, a significant proportion will see their condition deteriorate and many will find themselves having to go to other NHS facilities.
"They reckon there are £20m of savings to other NHS facilities in granting free prescriptions." The calculation was based on the numbers of patients not taking up prescriptions, the percentage who might then require hospital treatment and the costs of hospital admissions.
The average cost of treating an acute in-patient is put at £1875 a week, rising to £7500 a week for patients having heart surgery.
Mr Fox said: "The financial argument in favour of abolition is increasingly robust. It now appears clear there are considerable savings to be made. I believe the Executive’s argument it would lead to cuts elsewhere to be nonsense.
"Even £40m is only four per cent of the NHS’s annual drug bill in Scotland. And the income from prescription charges is less than half of one per cent of NHS income."
The Bill to scrap prescription charges will go to the parliament’s health committee next week to start taking evidence on its proposals.
And Mr Fox said he was "more than hopeful" that he could get the legislation through parliament, despite the Executive’s opposition.
He said 22 MSPs had already signed up in support of the Bill. The SNP was said to be concerned about the financial implications of abolition, but Mr Fox hopes today’s figures will help persuade them to support the move.
Opponents of Mr Fox’s Bill argue many of the people who can’t afford to pay prescription charges are already exempt under various categories.
The Scottish Executive says it is conducting a review of prescription charges for people in full-time education and those with chronic conditions.
It expects to consult on changes to the system in the spring.
