Scottish prescription charges cut

Prescription charges in Scotland are to be reduced from £5 to £4 in the latest stage of their phasing out.

Pre-payment charges for those suffering from long-term conditions will also be reduced from £17 to £13.

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon urged Holyrood's health and sport committee to block free prescription charges.

But her move was described as "malicious and evil" by a Nationalist committee member.

The Scottish Government has pledged to abolish prescription charges completely by 2011.

Ms Scanlon, who sits on the committee, argued that the £40m it would cost to abolish prescription charges was not the best use of NHS funds.

She pushed the committee to a vote after complaining she had failed to get answers from Public Health Minister Shona Robison.

"Freezing prescription charges at their current levels could be a sensible compromise at this stage"
Mary Scanlon MSP

"Abolishing prescription charges means that MSPs and others who currently contribute to the NHS budget will join a new group that can pay but won't pay," she said.

"Only this week, we saw reports of patients with cancer being denied access to drugs on the NHS in Scotland.

"So would the money being used to fund this further reduction in prescription charges be better spent widening access to more drugs rather than giving existing treatments free to those who can afford to pay?"

She said the cost of scrapping charges could alternatively fund 175,211 MRI scans, 2,000 new nurses or a 40% increase in the total hospital cleaning budget.

"Freezing prescription charges at their current levels could be a sensible compromise at this stage," she added.

SNP backbencher Ian McKee, a committee member and former GP, criticised the "malicious and evil" Tory proposal.

"You (the Tories) don't realise the huge burden that having to pay for prescriptions can put on people," he said.

Share the burden

Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson, another GP, warned the use of antibiotics may increase due to the charge being scrapped.

"Given the situation we have with healthcare-associated infections, it is absolutely vital that we put downward pressure on the antibiotic budget," he said.

"I'm not saying that should be achieved by costs but what I am saying is that the pressure from articulate, well-paid individuals to go and get antibiotics is going to increase."

The committee voted by seven to one against Ms Scanlon's proposal for a freeze on prescription charges.

Mr Simpson voted against Ms Scanlon but said there was a case for more affluent people to share the burden in some way.

"We believe fundamentally that prescription charges are a tax on ill-health"
Shona Robison
Public Health Minister

Liberal Democrat committee member Ross Finnie said the debate failed to raise alternatives for NHS patients.

"To say to them that we don't have an alternative but by the way, whereas you thought the government was promising free prescriptions, actually we're going to freeze it - I don't think that's equitable at all," he said.

Ms Robison defended the SNP policy, which will see charges drop to £4 next month.

"We believe fundamentally that prescription charges are a tax on ill-health," she said.

"We believe people should not be penalised financially if they fall ill and they should not have to make choices about which essential medicines they can afford.

"We also believe that prescription charges are a barrier to good health, particularly for those living with long-term conditions."

Prescriptions are already free for everyone in Wales and will be free in Northern Ireland by 2010, but charges in England are to go up from £7.10 to £7.20 from April.

However, charges for cancer patients will be scrapped in England this year, with other long-term conditions to follow afterwards.

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