MSE NEWS: NHS prescription charges to be scrapped in Scotland

poppy10_2

Sad to see all the ignorant comments yet again.

Scotland has a completely separate national health service to England. The Scottish government controls its budget, and sets its own priorities on how to spend the limited pot of cash available. NHS Scotland can give out free prescriptions, but then it has less money to pay for drugs and services that patients of NHS England might get.

diable

poppy10 wrote: »

Sad to see all the ignorant comments yet again.

Scotland has a completely separate national health service to England. The Scottish government controls its budget, and sets its own priorities on how to spend the limited pot of cash available. NHS Scotland can give out free prescriptions, but then it has less money to pay for drugs and services that patients of NHS England might get.

How much is the subsidy that the Scots get per person from England?

Search_2

diable wrote: »

How much is the subsidy that the Scots get per person from England?

What subsidy?

jackieb

MSE_Helen wrote: »

"Fee charges will be abolished in Scotland next month but they will rise in England ..."

I'm really surprised that someone official has actually posted this. It's like reading the Daily Mail!

We all know how these threads pan out. If I were English i'd be peed off as well. But it always comes down to Scot-baiting in the end.

Search_2

jackieb wrote: »

I'm really surprised that someone official has actually posted this. It's like reading the Daily Mail!

We all know how these threads pan out. If I were English i'd be peed off as well. But it always comes down to Scot-baiting in the end.

D'you know, I thought exactly the same thing. I was quite shocked in the way this had been framed by MSE, and knew the potential result..

d123

Wonderful isn't it? Scots get free prescriptions and Dave Camoron puts the price of English prescriptions up to help cover the deficit!

Thanks Dave, the English just love your idea of fairness.....

jackieb

Could the fact that Scottish GP's are paid £20k less than their English counterparts have anything to do with it?

rinabean

These comments are ridiculous. I'm English and all I think is good on Scotland. I wish our MPs had their priorities right. Do people really think England funds Scotland? Totally ridiculous. Why would English MPs vote for unpopular things in England and then give "our" money to Scotland? The public hate them enough as is. It makes no sense. It's just different funding priorities and that's all.

Money_Saving_Dude

Why do the Scots, Welsh and Irish get free prescriptions? Simple, there is still something of the socialist left in those that govern these areas. It's not rocket science -- they put the interests of their people first, rather than 'trying to cut taxes to save everyone's pockets' when it really means preventing the stress of taxation falling on the much more affluent.

If you want free prescriptions vote in a government that is sympathetic to the people. It has taken 30 years but finally the evils of the 80s have now got to half the population -- so much so that the Tories couldn't get a majority. But do we have to wait another 15 years before there are enough people in this country who say enough is enough, and we don't want to lose May Day -- yes it may be associated by some with socialism, but just because of that we need to abolish it.

It is that mentality that is preventing prescriptions from being free.

Now if we had a Land Value Tax -- hmm, we could do much to reduce income tax and get the wealthy to redistribute their earnings. Plus land doesn't move so they can't avoid it.

Well someone did ask why we couldn't have free prescriptions in England -- politics, dear boy, politics.

amanda40

We in Scotland may not pay for our prescriptions in the future, but we pay a lot more for dental bills - the upper ceiling for NHS work in Sctland is £384 whereas in England it is just £194 - not really fair either is it!! It covers the price of 27 free prescriptions.