Ask Candidates about Free Prescriptions

posted: 13/04/2010

One and a half years after Gordon Brown promised, here in Manchester, free prescriptions for people with long term conditions including cancer, the government has still not prepared new rules for Parliament to approve, apart from for cancer. There are many people with HIV who have to pay prescription charges. Some people are destitute, such as some migrants, and other people are on very low incomes. Some people are forced to choose between basics - eating and heating, and paying for treatment.

Help make sure all the election candidates know people care about free prescriptions are for people with long term conditions like HIV. Politicians are busy trying to win our votes, so it's the perfect time to make sure they know you want this pledge met by the next government - whoever they are.

Here are three easy things you can do to keep up the pressure:

Tell them on the doorstep - local candidates will be knocking on doors asking what matters to you in this election and aiming to convince you that they'll represent your views. Not many people will be talking about the unfair prescription charges for people with conditions like MS, Parkinsons disease and arthritis. Be original and tell them that you care about this issue. If you or a member of your family is directly affected by a long-term condition, you could tell them about it - that will really leave an impression.

Go to an election meeting - There will be question and answer sessions, known as hustings, in your area. There could even be a health-specific hustings. Ask the candidates whether they will support free prescriptions for people with long-term conditions. Promises of support that candidates make will be a matter of public record so make sure you take notes so we can hold them to their promises after the election. Check your local papers for details of election meetings with candidates.

Influence the leaders' TV debates - You can suggest a question for the three TV debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Why not ask them whether they will support the health of millions of people with long-term conditions by scrapping charges for the prescriptions they need to stay well? Click on these links to submit your questions to ITV News , Sky News and BBC News.

Tell us what happens

Please tell the campaigners at THT if you get any commitments from candidates by emailing
Visit for more information the Prescription Promise campaign 

 

Prescriptions, HIV and Charges

posted: 10/03/2009

The British Medical Association has branded as pointless the Department of Health's consultation on making everyone with a long-term condition exempt from prescription charges. 

It says this is a waste of time and energy and the government should just make all remaining prescriptions free once more. Just 1 in 10 prescriptions are now paid for and this will fall even more because cancer patients will get free prescriptions from 1 April.

In Wales and Scotland all prescription charges have either already been abolished or are about to be abolished.

HIV treatment costs

Since the start of this year Greater Manchester HIV clinics (among other HIV clinics) have stopped prescribing any drugs except those for HIV and their treatment side effects. People must now turn to a GP for prescriptions for all other healthcare needs, such as depression amd anxiety, and sexual dysfunction. 

For some people with HIV this means paying for these prescriptions - some people are exempt, some are exempt because of low income, and some people can buy a discount card. Find out what help is available with English prescription charges here.

The charging review

The Prescription Charges Review will consider how to implement prime minister Brown's commitment to exempt patients with long-term conditions (LTCs) from prescription charges over the next few years following the exemption for cancer patients.

It will consider:

• how to define the range of long term conditions affecting patients that should be exempted from prescription charges;
• how exemption from charging can best be phased in, with due regard to:
  - what is in the best interests of patients
  - the potential impact on the wider health care system
  - implications for existing policies on management of long term conditions
  - implications for public expenditure

The review will report to the Minister for Public Health and the Secretary of State for Health in Summer 2009.

It would be good to have your say on exempting HIV as a longterm condition from prescription charges but it seems the Deaprtment of Health doesn't want to hear - there is no way to feed your views to the department at the consultation page.

Last September Gordon Brown announced that “as over the next few years the NHS generates cash savings in its drugs budget we will plough savings back into abolishing charges for all patients with long-term conditions”.  The Department of Health has established the Prescription Charges Review, chaired by Sir Ian Gilmore, to make recommendations on how this policy will be implemented. 

Charging by diagnosis or disability

The idea that we should discriminate in levels of charges according to diagnosis or disability is fundamentally misconceived. Herpes is a chronic condition. So are HIV and ME.

TB and syphilis are perhaps not chronic conditions because they can be treated and people cured, but it is in the interest of the rest of the population that people take their treatments properly and become clear of infections.

Continuing to restrict help with prescription charges to save money is a false economy. Despite the help available, the simple existence of charges is enough of a barrier to put off some of the poorest and most vulnerable. 

George House Trust supports the BMA argument, prescription charging has reached the point where the income from charging isn't worth the administrative and other costs of collection. Scotland and Wales are already seeing the benefits of free prescriptions. We don't need a review, we need prescription charges in England scrapped.

Department of Health Consultation

source