England prescription charges to rise
 

Well just as Scotland make prescription charges free, England is rising to £7.40 up by 20p.:mad:

So no guesses why the Scots are getting them free:rolleyes:.

So now people cannot afford to be ill.

Link to follow "Breaking News"

That would cost my mum over £59 pm a £2 rise, if she had to pay. But she's retired.

But there will be people out there in a similar situation.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Your mum pays individually for 8 prescriptions a month?

Your mum is under 60?

Sorry but prescription charges are still minimal and we remain, dentistry aside, a nation with very, very few co-pay elements to our healthcare system.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Prices are going up all over the shop.
at this rate we'll all be having to pack our jobs in as we can't afford the cost of living.

it might not seem so bad, but if you add everthing up at the end of the week it probably comes to about a few quid. then you times it by 4 and you get a month.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I've edited my post to make it clearer.

Before she retired she had one of those upfront payment card for prescriptions, which saved her loads.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Anybody needing a lot of prescriptions can still buy a pre payment certificate which could save them a lot of money over 12 mnths

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Costs are still minimal, and as a reminder:

Also

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1125.aspx

It's the complete disconnect between healthcare costs and the delivery of that healthcare that are a major problem with the NHS - if we were paying a social insurance premium alongside co-pay the NHS would be more broadly and better funded and its funding wouldn't be a political football. I would very much like to see more co-pay elements so have absolutely no objection or issue with increasing prescription charges.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Then how would you afford the cost of living?:confused:

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I was thinking of the dole. they'll cover most of the expense.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I think you may be disappointed.....

But if you do, let us know how you get on....

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Fore those who require lots of items and don't get free prescriptions these are a good idea:

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I think the major issue here is why are the rest of the UK getting free prescriptions while the English are having to pay more?

Yet another fail for the "CON-DEMs"

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Its all own to the devolution of the regions ie wales/scotland having their own decision making assemblies which have voted for the prescription charges in their areas,whereby our own rulers have decided on something very diffierent.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

The point is that Wales and Scotland somehow have their own assemblies. They are being allocated money from somewhere, that they choose to spend on free prescriptions. But where is that equivalent pot of money for England, and who has control of it. Surely Central Government shouldn't have control over that and England should have it's own regional assembly, to keep things even.

Or maybe its the case that the sick of England are expected to subsidise the sick of Scotland and Wales?

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Trust me, since I moved to England I see the pitfalls of free prescriptions in Wales. Yes it was great to not have to pay for my repeat painkillers each month but since I've been up here I can see how awful the Welsh NHS has become in terms of service and personalised care.

It may not be as simple as this but it would seem that we were paying for free prescriptions with sub-standard service. I am now happy to pay for my prescriptions where necessary.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Presumably because the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly have decided to spend bigger proportionately larger portions of their overall budgets on those things. The money they spend on free prescriptions will not be available for other things and if England were to emulate them the cost for so doing would have to be clawed back from something else.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

And to be fair to the current government, it was Labour back in 1997 giving us devolution that allowed this to happen.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

This is quite bizarre.

This is the NHS. We will pay for those prescriptions either on collection or via taxation, one way or the other they have to be paid for. Personally I think it entirely appropriate that those who are in a position to pay are charged.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

But it gets to the stage where those who are in a position to pay, are no better off than those who can't.
after paying for everything.

it's like say rent. people who are working pay full rent because they work. by the time that's been spent they can and could have the same amount of money left that someone who gets the rent free has.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Given that that money has to either come from users of services or from taxation you just made a case for cutting the state there Gary :)

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I know. that's why I'd make a good PM :)

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Well here we go again, the bloody Scots get it Scot free while those of us south of the border get a rise in the cost. Once again if the Scotish want devolution put up a brick bloody wall and find your own income rather than sponging off of your brothers south of the border.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

I am one of the people who get them for free because of my medical exemption due to a chronic illness, but I am still annoyed that our parliament lets us pay when it allows the likes of Scotland to give them for free as my taxes go towards that as does every other UK tax payer.:mad:

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

But us scots have it better than devolution, our own decisions our own heritage, our own flag and a nice chunk of money from the English :d

Also don't forget about our free education :)

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Exactly we are in reality one country as we have no borders and the majority of funding is from English taxes.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

IIRC, due to all the various exemptions, the vast majority of prescriptions in England are issued free of charge.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

The are still many like my wife who has high blood pressure who has to pay for a yearly card because she is on 3 tablets a day which would cost around £24 a month.

She will be on them for life but it is not classed as chronic so she has to pay which is a ridiculous state of affairs.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Maybe if your passing Gretna you could stock up :)

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

We get charged even in Scotland as we are not residents.:erm:

I was married there.;)

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

As said: The Scots decided to have free subscriptions. That's money spent and out of their budget meaning it can't be spent elsewhere. It's not as if they get additional funds for free subscriptions. It's how they choose to allocate the money they've been given to spend.

As Russ suggested, you may well find that a poorer general standard of service as a result of it.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Unfortunately we have no say over where our taxes get allocated and to do so would be impractical anyway. But you'd think people were used to this anyway - I think the idea of car tax going on the maintenance of roads is pretty much a fallacy to most these days.

Like it or not the Welsh and Scots are able to have funding in departments that aren't applicable to the English. Don't like it? Fine, let's swap. You get to have free prescriptions, we get a government that has the power to make decisions that affect and change the whole of the UK.

In any case, blame Labour for granting the right to devolve.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Err how about we just all go it alone instead, Wales either wants to be a proper country and make decisions for itself or it doesn't

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Last time I looked Welsh and Scottish MPs sit in the House of Commons alongside English MPs, just they get less votes as the English are about 84% of the population of the UK, Wales 5% and Scotland 8.5%.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

You think all Welsh people want the same thing? That's what the referendum was for.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

It would actually be quite good to offer all 4 home nations in-out referendums, referendums are always a good thing.

Sadly most politicians only like referendums when they think they'll give them the answer they want.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

My wife also has a chronic condition which isn't covered - and I'm not talking about me either... :D

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

Does she have the yearly payment card as it will save you a fortune in most cases.

Re: England prescription charges to rise
 

No - it's only one item a month and she's pretty damned fit otherwise. If she needed more items we'd definitely go for one.