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CEP: English left behind as Northern Ireland abolishes prescription charges

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Monday, 06, Oct 2008 12:00

The Northern Irish government has announced that it is to abolish prescription charges in Northern Ireland from 2010.

As an interim step, the charges will be reduced to £3 per prescription next year before being abolished entirely in the following year.

Prescriptions in Wales have been free since April 2007 and in Scotland they will be free from this coming April.

The British government, however, continues to refuse to abolish prescription charges in England. Gordon Brown used the Labour Party conference to pledge free prescriptions for cancer patients in England and the British Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw, recently said that the British government wouldn’t be providing free prescriptions in England because they think cutting waiting times is a better use of resources. The figures on waiting times are nonsense of course - the clock restarts after every part of the investigation and treatment so someone needing a consultation, scan, follow-up consultation and then an operation can have a wait of four times the maximum allowed on the waiting list and the hospital will still hit its target.

Things like transport, the environment, fisheries, etc. – discriminating against English people in those areas is an irritation but health is a different matter. How many people a year die in England because they can’t afford to pay for the medication they need? How many people in England die a premature death because they can’t afford the medication that would prolong their life? Does the British Health Minister know? Does the British Health Minister care?

Contact: Stephen Maund - 07779 338343 - capacity@btinternet.com - www.thecep.org.uk

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