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The current system of prescription charges in England affects the most vulnerable people in society and makes the health inequality in this country worse. At the NPA, it’s been our longstanding position that people should not be denied access to prescription medicines on the basis of their ability to pay. As pharmacists, we understand the healing power of medicines. We also know from first-hand experience that people on low fixed incomes who do not qualify for exemption suffer greatly from the current system. From a pharmacist’s point of view, processing prescription levies is a task which adds workload but has no patient benefit. We are health care professionals and have no interest in being tax collectors! We also believe there would be little return on investment to the NHS from proposals to aligning the upper age for NHS prescription charges at 65 years old, due to the various operational costs. It could also lead to indirect cost to the NHS as people’s health suffers from making a reluctant choice not to take their medicines as prescribed. All prescriptions should be exempt from charges regardless of age or medical condition, as is the case in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Far more value for money can be achieved in the drugs budget by reducing waste and improving medicines use, for example through the NHS New Medicines Service, which has recently been expanded to include Parkinson’s, heart failure and stroke. Pharmacists, like other health care professionals, experience great pressures on their time and they want to spend it with patients, not with paperwork associated with prescription charges. The National Pharmacy Association is glad to be part of the prescription charges coalition, seeking reform of this outdated, illogical and unfair system. Helga MangionHelga is Policy Manager at The National Pharmacy Association.
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Last year we encouraged supporters to write to their MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motion 406 to oppose the Government's proposal to align prescription charges with the state pension age. We're delighted that the numbers on the EDM are slowly increasing.
We've also been reaching out to MPs and peers to keep our concerns present in the Government's mind, as they make their decision on whether to implement their proposals. During December and January various MPs have asked questions about prescription charges in parliament including Caroline Lucas, Navendu Mishra and Sarah Green. Parliamentary debate The Cystic Fibrosis Trust also worked with Paul Maynard MP to secure a parliamentary debate on the impact of prescription charges for people living with cystic fibrosis. We plan to follow up this debate with a letter to the Minister, Lord Kamall asking him to urgently review the prescription charge exemption list. Our worries have also been picked up by the press throughout January in:
We'll continue to provide comment and raise our opposition to the plans, that will see people with long-term conditions pay for longer for their vital medication. We welcome the government's proposal that people needing HRT prescriptions will only need to pay once a year for their medication, and call on the Government to ensure this change also applies to men affected by Klinefelter syndrome (KS/XXY). This will significantly reduce the cost a person needing the medication will face, by up to £200 per year.
We pay tribute to Carolyn Harris MP for tabling the Menopause, Support and Services Bill as she has shone a spotlight on the unfairness of people getting vital medication for free in all other UK nations. We also thank all MPs who supported the debate and shared their experiences. But thousands of people with other long term health conditions are still facing rising costs to simply live well and manage their condition. This is unjust and risks burdening our NHS, as medication remains unaffordable. Now is the time for the Government to overhaul the outdated prescription charges exemption list. The UK Government are currently consulting on aligning the prescription charge to the State Pension Age.
The Prescription Charges Coalition oppose this proposal and are encouraging supporters to email their MP asking them to raise concerns about this with the Department of Health and Social Care. Media pick up our concerns Over the past few weeks the Coalition have shared our concerns about the proposal with various media outlets. Our comments have been covered in The Daily Express and also on BBC Radio Humberside (from 3.16.30) after Labour councillors in North East Lincolnshire condemned the proposals. Take action It's crucial the Government hear from people who will be affected, so please email your MP, sign the 38 degrees petition and respond to the consultation by 2 September. The UK Government are consulting on aligning the prescription charge with the State Pension Age. This would mean that people in England would need to pay for their prescriptions until they're at least 66 initially and this would rise as the State Pension Age does.
We are opposed to this proposal as we don't believe the impact of it has been properly assessed for:
Last Thursday (1 April) the Coalition was mentioned in over 500 pieces of media coverage across the country, as we warned that the cost of a single prescription item could reach over £10 by 2025.
We managed to secure national coverage in The Metro, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, MSN UK and across hundreds of regional publications. Many of our charity supporters also shared their support on their social channels using the hashtag #ReviewTheList We'll continue to campaign for the Government to review the prescription exemption list and scrap the charge for people with long-term conditions. Earlier this week the UK government announced they would increase prescription charges in England on 1 April 2021.
We will continue to campaign for the government to review the exemption list and scrap the charge for people with long-term conditions. Laura, who chairs the Coalition shares what activities we've been doing this year2020 has been a challenging year for everyone. As a Coalition we've come together several times to discuss and agree activities we could undertake to raise the profile of prescription charges and get the UK Government to commit to reviewing the exemption list. The recent coverage of the NHS clampdown on “prescription fraud” coincided with the anniversary of my daughter’s death. Emma had mitochondrial disease. It’s progressive and currently there is no treatment and no cure. There are only drugs to manage your symptoms and, with hope, prolong your life. Emma became ill at 21, at a time when the world should have been at her feet. She largely got her head around all that and dealt with her illness with tremendous courage, but she could not understand why she was also forced to struggle to pay for the prescriptions that were so essential to her when others were exempt.
She worked reduced hours due to her illness and lived with her partner, a newly qualified nurse, so was not entitled to any help with charges. The cost and injustice were too much for her to bear. For her, the lack of exemption from prescription charges effectively invalidated her illness. It was as if the NHS was saying, ‘Other illnesses count, but yours doesn’t.’ When you support your child of any age through a serious illness, your desire to protect them grows ever stronger, at the same time your ability to do so grows weaker. When you can’t alter the big things – the illness, the prognosis, the pain your child is in – it becomes more important to try and at least change the things you can. At first, we paid for the prescriptions ourselves, but Emma didn’t want dependence on her parents as an adult, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to collect Emma’s prescriptions and reluctantly, but purposely ticked the box that said she didn’t have to pay, because it seemed the least incorrect thing to do. We wanted to be held to account, to have our day in court, to pay the fine if we had to … and to raise the profile of this injustice. We didn’t do it lightly, but couldn’t support such a system within the NHS – an NHS which we believed was about the burden of cost not falling on the long-term sick. It’s astonishing that people with cancer had to pay prescription charges for their drugs until 2009 when cancer was added to the exemptions list ... the only time it’s been adjusted in 50 years. And yet people with illnesses just as devastating still pay for their vital prescriptions drugs every single day. This is not about ‘my illness is worse than your illness’ in any way. This is about treating people fairly and equitably. I have to speak for Emma and her feelings on this because she can’t: the illness that the prescription charge exemption didn’t acknowledge killed her last September, aged just 28. Her ‘long-term illness’ has ended all too soon. The most we can hope for now is that Emma’s death will count. On Emma’s behalf, I ask you to please see how cruel and unjust it is to negate someone’s illness by not including it on the exemptions list. We need outrage. We need the same outrage for Emma – and others like her with a whole variety of horrendous illnesses – that we’d have for people with cancer in this position. Having an unfair list of conditions which are exempt from prescription charges is simply not okay. We need a review. We need change – and we need it now. Author: Christine Beal You can find out more about Emma's Mito Mission here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZVu61sFH6g |
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March 2022
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