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.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Bill reaches the Health Committee
The Scottish Parliament health committee considered the bill to abolish prescription charges at their meeting on Tuesday 29th November. You can find the full record of the meeting here.
Colin Fox MSP says:
"Things went well for us and I am optimistic that we will have influenced many.
The highlights as you can see from the record include the Deputy Minister for Health Lewis Macdonald explaining that the philosophy behind the charges is that there should be a co-payment system for healthcare provision in the UK. This is clearly at odds with the concept of a universal service free at the point of need.
He also argued that those who can afford to pay should pay but accepted that under the current system there are thousands who can afford to pay and don’t whilst at the same time tens of thousands of patients who clearly can’t afford to pay and who are forced to go without their medicines.
He also went on to say that the SE’s own review already more than a year behind schedule would not conclude until this time next year!
He was not prepared to reveal what their review might present as the ‘cabinet has not yet decided’ but he did reveal that they may take away the exemption which chronic sufferers currently receive for medicines not directly related to their particular chronic condition. For example a patient with diabetes would no longer qualify for free antibiotics for, say, a chest infection.
This surprised the Committee who then questioned the SE’s commitment to extend exemptions for those with chronic conditions, when it may actually result in a withdrawal of exemption status for people who currently don’t have to pay. Some extension!
The Minister also accepted the evidence of the Citizens Advice Bureau that perhaps as many as 75,000 prescriptions per year in Scotland are not picked up at pharmacists because the patients have difficulty paying the £6.5o charge for each item. This is significant because they have in the past tried to rubbish this research."
