MSE NEWS: NHS prescription charges to be scrapped in Scotland

welshdent

I am welsh and utterly opposed to free prescriptions as are most people I know in wales. Its a stupid expensive exercise and solely intended to be a popularist move. Doctors and dentists, wait and see how much fun it is dealing with those demanding free pain killers rather than paying the 36p in the shop. It costs the tax payer MUCH more.

welshdent

amanda40 wrote: »

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.

Actually amanda you are a little misleading there. Yes indeed the maximum is 384 but then you are fee per item. In England the cost is actually 204 as it has just gone up ... however in england everyone needing anything from a night splint to a single crown pays 204 and a standard charge. In scotland you would pay substantially less as you would only be paying for that item. A crown in wales before the new contract was IIRC around £90. Therefore if you needed a crown you would have been paying around the 110 mark when the examination and necessary investigations were taken. You would only be paying the full amount if you needed a lot of treatment. In england no account of this is made so in reality YOUR system is better than in england and wales.
In fact I even over estimated things!

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/dentistry/charges

Look at that. In scotland you can have a full set of dentures and the necessary examination for £139.04, In england 204.

In Scotland you can have a filling and the examination for £17.60
In england its 42

As I said those needing a LOT of work pay that maximum price.

ifonlyitwaseasier

i think the prescription charges issue is actuially quite annoying.

and yes i'm in england and yes i'm properly pee'd off that we are the only part of the UK that wil be paying for 'scrips.

how is that fair? and no i don't care if the different "nations" have seperate nhs budgets, it's still an unfair fee on illness. i desperatly try to not get anything from my doctor as i know it can make a hell of a difference in our budget.

Imho either the whole of the UK has to pay or none of us should!

brook2jack

Free scripts have to be paid for somehow. Where I work a child in pain needing ga urgently for teeth out will wait one year or more. Over the border 12 miles away in England 2 weeks.

A child needing braces can no longer be referred over the border so waiting lists are 2 to 3 years.

There are no dental specialists anywhere near the area I work and I can't refer to England so people have a substandard service. My health board is in the red as are almost all the welsh health boards. We have to make yet more cuts soon but the holy Grail of free prescriptions and dental checkups is sacrosanct taking money away from essential services because it is politically popular.

Gillyx

When different nations are given there own NHS budgets, they can chose to do with them what they like, sadly Westminster can't force Scotland and Wales to charge for prescriptions, the same way Holyrood can't force Westminster to give free prescriptions, it's how politics works, not always fair, but then when is it ever. The majority of the Scottish people in this thread would rather the money was spent differently, but there's not alot can be done, other than talking to your MP about it.

jackieglasgow

As a Scot who is on a regular prescription and pays for my meds, I feel it is a waste of money for the idiots at the Scottish Government to give away prescriptions. I would rather people like myself who can afford to pay, still did, and that the money "saved" be reinvested in improving services and patient care in the NHS in Scotland. In fact, if I voted SNP this would be the one thing to make me switch my vote. Bloody idiots IMO. Now, whilst I don't enjoy paying for my medicines, I would much rather keep doing it, and see people like CF sufferers get theirs for free, and the NHS provide another bed for a cancer patient. Complete incompetent waste of time, and actually makes me quite mad.:mad: and there's a wee angry face just to prove it!

ryouga

gasbag1602 wrote: »

This makes me very angry:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:!!!!
Our lovely neighbours from the north hate our guts and dont try to hide it but are sapping the tax payers money like that. I say give them total independace and see how long they last!!!! And i dont care if people dont agree there you go!:D

Think you have it the wrong way round like that, and why is it ok for an English person to be bitter about something but the second a Scottish person thinks about complaining they are racist and "hate your guts"

Just another case of people going into media hype again, if you came to Scotland and not just the rough areas where someone would start on you no matter if you were English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish or whatever then almost everyone is quite friendly in fact I am Scottish with a neutral accent that people think is English and people buy me pints and ask about England etc!

Plus what about the tax money Scotland makes? 100% of Scottish money isnt from England.

But I think your comment is a bit sarcastic about other people.

polka_purpura

A Department of Health spokeman says: "Abolishing prescription charges in England would leave the NHS with a funding gap of over £450 million each year

Ok

What proportion of people can't afford their medication and end up potentially aggravating their condition and require more treatment as a result?

This would seem a weakness of the English system.

Likewise, to what extent does the Scottish system fail to fund more expensive drugs by eliminating prescription charges? Is the Scottish equivalent of NICE more restrictive?

Both systems have potential weaknesses.

MSE fails to report what it's readership is losing and gaining in each system.

Besides both governments fail by not regulating the food industry more and engaging more in preventative measures.

We still have trans-fats in our food which contributes to cardio-vascular problems and we now have an increasing amount of glucose-fructose (corn) syrup (GFCS) in our our food which contributes greatly to obesity. Try finding a jam or preserve, especially marmalade, in the supermarkets that doesn't contain GFCS.

Short of a ban on such chemicals in foods this is where tax should be applied to improve health and wellbeing. Not by increasing subscription charges.

We might then actually start freeing up medical resources to deal with conditions that are more difficult to prevent or treat. I understand all parts of the UK have difficulty with investment in mental health and counselling services. Somehow the current system 'believes' we will run out of ill people.

I hope the present Westminster government, and other governments where relevent, hurry up with happiness index as they surely need it treating ill health as a desirable contribution to GDP.

Shame on them and shame on MSE for providing tabloid articles rather than contributing to informed debate.

Might I suggest the 'ABUSE' button be disabled on such threads in future so as not to hinder informed 'debate'?

For those who want to campaign I found a link to this on the British Heart Foundation website:

http://campaign.publicaffairsbriefing.co.uk/home.aspx?cid=79c3eb7e-7b85-413a-b954-77d3e78b3f5c

I'm sure there are other campaigns.

Be warned if you are going to sign email campaigns some MP's ignore such bulk emails but don't let them sit on their laurels between elections when you can continue to cast your vote by campaigning.

polka purpura

ElkyElky

gasbag1602 wrote: »

This makes me very angry:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:!!!!
Our lovely neighbours from the north hate our guts and dont try to hide it but are sapping the tax payers money like that. I say give them total independace and see how long they last!!!! And i dont care if people dont agree there you go!:D

Absolute b*llocks. What age are you? 12?

Scotland does have tax payers aswell.. perhaps it is their money that is being used to cover the cost of the free prescriptions? You can bet your @ss the Scottish government will recoup the costs of prescriptions by other means - we may not pay for them directly but we will indirectly.

We never hated your guts, but we do now you bigoted old fool.

kerrydrobertson

Im loving what our Government has done for us, they said they would do it for us and they have.
my husband pays a good £500 a month tax and i think for that, that covers his 1 prescription a month he gets for his asthma.
THink they said it would cost too much for them to scrap it in England but they could reduce it, is absolutely disgusting how expensive it is and i really feel for you.