Prescription price set to be cut

Prescription charges will be reduced on Thursday

Prescription charges are to be reduced from £6.85 to £3 from Thursday, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has said.

Prepayment certificates are also to be reduced, from £35.85 to £9 for a four-month certificate, and from £98.70 to £25 for a 12-month certificate.

The move comes ahead of the abolition of prescription charges in Northern Ireland in April 2010.

Mr McGimpsey said the reductions would make a real difference for people who needed to buy medication regularly.

'Suffering'

He said the abolition of charges would bring to an end the "inequitable system which ranked one person's suffering above another's".

"Reducing the charge to £3 is the beginning of the process towards abolition of prescription charges," he said.

"The introduction of free prescriptions in April 2010 will bring great comfort to thousands of people who suffer from ill-health and do not need the added anxiety of trying to find the money to pay for vital medication."

Mr McGimpsey said the cost of the reductions would be met "from within existing budgets" and no existing service would suffer as a result.

"I will be putting processes in place to ensure that prescribing rates are kept within acceptable limits," he said.