Tell Your MP – No Prescription Charges with HIV

posted: 22/07/2010

It's prescription charging decision time. We need your help. Now the Department of Health and other parts of government are making the spending decisions which will be part of the Autumn Spending Review. This includes deciding whether to stop charging people with conditions including HIV, MS, Parkinson’s and heart disease for the prescriptions people need to stay well.

Money may be tight but that is no excuse for continuing the gross unfairness of England's prescription charging system. Prescription charges have already been abolished for everyone, not just people with long-term conditions, in Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland will abolish the last £3 of their charge in 2011.
 

Campaigners like you have already helped persuade MPs to support this campaign to end prescription charges for people with long-term conditions, including HIV. In May, the Government's independent review of prescription charges showed how this can be achieved. Now, before Parliament goes on its summer holiday and the Autumn Spending Review appears in October, we need a last push - please ask your MP to support the campaign.

It's easy to act

Please click here to ask your MP in England to sign a Parliamentary motion calling on the government to scrap prescription charges for people with long-term conditions this Autumn.
 

Thank you for your support.
 

More information about the prescription charges review here

Information on help you can get with prescription costs here
 

Prescription Charges Coalition There are 22 members of the Prescription Charges Coalition, including Terrence Higgins Trust who represent the HIV sector:
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group, Arthritis Care, Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, Asthma UK, Behcets Syndrome Society, British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Disability Alliance, FibroAction, Klinefelter’s Syndrome Association, Mind, Motor Neurone Disease Association, MS Society, National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society, National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, Parkinson’s UK, Pernicious Anaemia Society, Rethink, The Stroke Association, Skin Care Campaign, Terrence Higgins Trust
 

Prescription Charges Review

posted: 01/06/2010

The long-awaited review of prescription charges by Professor Ian Gilmore has appeared. Over a year ago, Gordon Brown promised at the Labour Party Conference to end prescription charges for people with long term conditions. People with cancer were exempted from charges but people with other long-term conditions, like HIV, are still waiting.

The report recommends that people with long-term conditions should have free prescriptions. It sets out a plan for how the government should change the unfair prescriptions system to make sure people get the medications they need to stay well.

You can read the full report.

Depends on autumn spending review
The coalition government has welcomed the review, but says it will only consider this in the autumn, as part of the Spending Review. Many MPs already support this campaign.

HIV and prescriptions

Since the start of 2009 Greater Manchester HIV clinics (among most 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 and anxiety, and sexual dysfunction.
 

Some help already available

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.

There are 22 members of the Prescription Charges Coalition, including Terrence Higgins Trust:

Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group, Arthritis Care, Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, Asthma UK, Behcets Syndrome Society, British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Disability Alliance, FibroAction, Klinefelter’s Syndrome Association, Mind, Motor Neurone Disease Association, MS Society, National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society, National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, Parkinson’s UK, Pernicious Anaemia Society, Rethink, The Stroke Association, Skin Care Campaign, Terrence Higgins Trust

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 

 

Keep Free Prescription Promise

posted: 21/01/2010

UPDATED 26 January - further information

Gordon Brown promised at the labour party conference in 2008 to end prescription charges for people with long term conditions like HIV. Over a year later people are still paying. Now the Prescription Charges Coalition of 20 charities has called on Gordon Brown to keep his promise.
 

‘Prescription charges are a deeply unfair burden on people with long-term conditions — those who need medicines the most for day-to-day quality of life', they say in their letter. ‘Patients should not be prevented by an NHS charge from accessing treatment to improve their quality of life.'
 

Time is short because of coming election

The charities said they hoped that the government would be able to find a way to implement this policy as soon as possible. Time is short – new regulations need to be tabled within the next month or the general election will shut the door to reform.
 

Join the campaign and email your MP

Email your MP here and back the campaign – it’s easy to help.

first source 
another report

Keep Free Prescription Promise

posted: 07/12/2009

A simple email now to your MP could help Gordon Brown keep his promise. Over a year ago, at the Labour Party 2008 conference, Gordon Brown pledged to scrap prescription charges for all people with long-term medical conditions, including HIV. He didn’t say when he would scrap the prescription charges, leaving us all waiting in the dark. We are still waiting.
 

People with some health problems never have to pay prescription charges. But the list of conditions that passport people to free prescriptions hasn’t been updated since it was written in 1968. HIV is not on the list, simply because HIV was discovered almost twenty years after the list was made.

While HIV medicines themselves come free because they are prescribed by the hospital, other medicines (for depression, anxiety, and everything else) have to be paid for.

Many people with HIV have no right to free prescriptions and these costs rapidly mount up. Some people cannot afford to collect the drugs they need from the chemist.
 

Actions, not words

Please email your MP to ask the Secretary of State for Health for the abolition of prescription charges for people with HIV and other long-term conditions.
 

Easy-peasy

Simply click the link, then add your details and it will write a custom letter from you to your MP – please be patient while it writes your personalised letter.
 

Disunited Kingdom

Each prescription item now costs £7.20 in England. Wales has already abolished prescription charges, Northern Ireland abolishes them in 2010 and Scotland will abolish them by 2011 - meanwhile Scotland is cutting the cost year by year - they are £4 now and will be £3 from April. England? they went up in April again to £7.20.