Can you afford to be ill if you live in England?

From 1st April 2011 the cost of prescriptions in England will rise by 20 pence to £7.40 per item! Whilst on the same day, Scotland will scrap all prescription charges to fall in line with Wales and Northern Ireland which already see free prescriptions.

Can this be fair to those living in England?

Surely as a nation, all prescription charges within the UK should be standard for all. Why do we have this postcode lottery whereby you can only truly afford to be ill if you live in certain areas of the country? Why should one area pay for the luxury of all other areas to be exempt from charges?

This can only be seen as inequality within our NHS service.

The Department of Health said removing charges in England would cost too much. A spokesperson from the Department of Health said: "The extensive exemption arrangements we have in place mean that in England, around 90% of prescription items are already dispensed free of charge.

"The price of the 12 month prescription pre-payment certificate will be frozen for the second year running. This allows people to get all the prescriptions they need for an average cost of £2 per week.

The government went on to say that the NHS would be left with a shortfall of more than £450m per year if prescription charges were removed altogether in England.
"This is valuable income - equivalent to the salary costs of nearly 18,000 nurses, or 15,000 midwives, or over 3,500 hospital consultants. This income helps the NHS to maintain vital services for patients," the Department of Health said.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of BMA Council, which has been asking the government to abolish prescription charges, said: "Patients in England have to pay, while those in Wales and Northern Ireland do not. From 1 April Scotland will completely scrap its charges, a move that further exaggerates the absurd postcode lottery that exists in the UK".

"The bureaucracy needed to administer prescription charges is cumbersome, many of the exemptions are confusing and unfair. Patients with disabling long-term conditions still have to pay them despite a recent report recommending they be phased out."

Dr Meldrum added that the principle of charging for prescriptions runs counter to the founding principle of an NHS that is free at the point of use.

"The BMA understands that we live in financially difficult times, but this is a tax on the sick that contributes only a modest amount to the NHS budget and does not offset the unfair disadvantage of asking the ill to pay for their medicine," he said.

I personally think it is ridiculous that we have a system which discriminates on the grounds of where you happen to live!

There are two fair systems for these charges; all prescriptions are free or the cost is reduced and levied equally across the whole of the UK.

I know which option I support..................