BMA calls for NHS prescription charges to be scrapped

HARDWORKING people are being forced to subsidise the NHS through unfair prescription charges, according to the British Medical Association. And a Swindon GP branded the rules on paying for medicine “unfair”. The organisation is asking for prescription fees to be scrapped, following Wales and now Scotland’s lead, rather than continuing to complicate the exemptions policy.

Cancer patients forced to cut back on food to pay hefty prescription charges

Nearly half of cancer patients in England are being forced to cut back on basic needs such as food or heating, in order to pay for their prescriptions, a survey by Macmillan Cancer Support has found.

 

The survey also shows that nearly two thirds of cancer patients are missing out on simple leisure activities, like family days out, because they are struggling to cope with the added cost of multiple prescriptions – often over long periods of time.

 

The results come more than a year after the Government promised to review the prescription charges system in England, which currently only gives medical exemptions to some illnesses.

Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, said:

 

‘It’s appalling that cancer patients in England are forced to cut back on basic necessities like food to pay for their urgently-needed medication. People must never be forced to choose between food or medication. The Government must act now. Patients should be allowed to focus on getting better instead of worrying how they’re going to find money for prescriptions.’

 

Cancer patients often need multiple prescriptions to ease distressing side effects of cancer treatment like nausea, fatigue, severe mouth ulcers, and debilitating diarrhoea and can spend hundreds of pounds each year paying for prescriptions.

 

Amanda from Surrey, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last September, said:

 

‘My treatment’s over but I’m still struggling. I’m now on statutory sick pay because I’ve been too unwell to work and quite frankly, have barely enough money to live on. I’ve had to adjust my lifestyle to cope with the cancer – a better diet, more heating, lots of prescriptions – and when you add it all up it’s expensive. Fighting cancer is hard enough without the terrible financial worry that comes with it.’

 

Macmillan believes prescription charges are a tax on illness and should be abolished in England.

 

To join Macmillan’s campaign visit www.macmillan.org.uk/campaigns

 

Macmillan Cancer Support campaign to abolish prescription charges

The Macmillian Cancer Support charity is campaigning for the abolition of preccription charges. Macmillan says it believe ‘in the following principles:

• No one should have to pay for their prescriptions – it is a tax on illness.
• No one should be in the position where they can’t afford their prescription.
• Some people are already exempt from prescription charges, but the current list of medical exemptions is over 40 years old so a review is long overdue. 
• Most people under 60 with cancer have to pay for their prescriptions. This unfair system means that nearly one in ten cancer patients (9%) aged 55 and under who do qualify for charges, are unable to pay for prescriptions.
• The Government needs to think again on their position that they will not put any more money into a solution. The review must consider new ways to fund extra spending on the prescriptions budget in England – such as more effective use of non-branded medicines which could save hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Visit their website here:

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/