Scottish Prescription Charges Rise By 20p – On Same Day The Welsh Abolish Them

Prescription charges in Scotland rose by 20p to £6.85 per item yesterday, the same day the Welsh Assembly scrapped the charges altogether. There were fresh calls yesterday for charges to be scrapped across the NHS in the wake of the Welsh decision.

Last year, The Scotsman launched a campaign to abolish prescription charging for sufferers of chronic illnesses.

Lewis Macdonald, the deputy health minister, has commissioned a review of the charges, which opposition parties and health charities believe should be scrapped.

The 20p rise, which was also introduced in England, is an increase of 3.6 per cent, just below the rate of inflation. It will raise an additional £46 million for the health service in Scotland.

As of yesterday, the cost of prescription pre-payments also went up to £35.85 for a four-monthly certificate and £98.70 for an annual one. These offer savings for people who need more than five items in four months or 14 items in a year.

However, about 50 per cent of people in Scotland are already exempt from prescription charges.

Older people, children under 16, people on low incomes, pregnant women and nursing mothers will be unaffected by the increase.

In Wales, the prescription price per item was frozen at £6 in 2001 and has been falling gradually since 2004 as part of a Welsh Labour manifesto commitment. The arrival of free prescriptions in Wales coincides with a ban on smoking in public places there.

Rhodri Morgan, the Welsh First Minister, said: “Devolution enables Wales to come up with Welsh solutions to Welsh circumstances. Wales, due to its industrial past, has a legacy of ill-health, especially of chronic conditions.”

Katherine Murphy a spokeswoman for the Patients Association, said the rest of Britain should follow the Welsh example. She said: “It’s a National Health Service – it should be prescriptions for free the other side of the Severn Bridge if it’s going to be free in Wales.”

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: “We already carried out a survey to gauge the public’s understanding of, and attitudes towards, prescription charging.

“And this was recently presented to the health committee to give a helpful insight into the findings of the consultation and the responses we have received so far. We are not yet in a position to make an announcement on the review.”

Yesterday, Shona Robison, of the SNP, said it was a major election issue. “Prescription charges are unfair and are nothing more than a tax on ill-health.

“An SNP government will end this by abolishing prescription charges for those with a chronic condition and for young people in full-time education or training.

“We will then follow the Welsh example by moving towards phasing them out for the rest of the population. It is a clear injustice that people on low incomes have up until now been faced with having to choose which of their prescriptions they can afford to buy.”