Tommy Sheridan MSP

THE Scottish Executive has announced a review of NHS prescription charges. My colleague, Colin Fox MSP, the Scottish Socialist Party representative for the Edinburgh area has lodged a Bill in the Scottish Parliament which seeks to abolish the “tax on ill health” altogether. The response to his Bill has been overwhelmingly supportive. Dozens of health groups, medical professionals and patients’ organisations say that the £6.40 charge prevents people from getting the treatment they need. Indeed the Citizens Advice Bureau in Scotland estimates that as many as 70,000 Scots each year are going without the drugs they need because they cannot afford them. Prescription charges have been around for 50 years but the writing is now on the wall for them. Last year the Welsh Assembly voted to abolish the charges because they were deterring people from getting treatment. A new report by the Social Market foundation reminds us that the demand for prescription charges comes from the Treasury, not from the medical profession, who continue to campaign for their removal. People write to us in their hundreds about the difficulties they face with these charges. Some are on Invalidity Benefit and yet still have to pay for their treatment. Others are chronically sick but are suffering from one of the many conditions not exempted by NHS regulations from paying the £6.40 charge per prescription item. All those patients have one thing in common and that is they face real hardship in trying to pay their bill. Pharmacists will tell you of patient after patient who asks them whether there is a cheaper alternative, or if it is possible to have only two of the three or four medicines prescribed for them. The regulations governing who is and isn’t exempt have not been reviewed since 1968. The Scottish Executive accepts that this situation can no longer be tolerated. However, they insist that outright abolition will not be considered. They argue that would mean people who can afford to pay denying the NHS much-needed resources. We are even accused, as socialists, of seeking “a free handout for the rich.” The nonsense is that the rich, by and large, can already get free medicines under current rules. Rich people over 60 for example – of which there are one or two like the queen and Prince Philip – are already entitled to free prescriptions. Similarly, rich patients with certain conditions like diabetes are entitled to free medicines. In fact it is those on very modest incomes that will suffer. People with conditions like asthma or cancer or mental health problems are forced to go without critical medicines. I am in favour of paying for the NHS out of general taxation, if that means the rich paying a bit more income tax then that’s fine by me. The cost of abolition would be around £40 million. This could be financed out of a windfall tax on the obscene profits made by drugs companies out of the NHS. I believe Scots really want to follow the Welsh and see the complete abolition of charges. One recent poll put support at 89 per cent. The Scottish Campaign to Remove All Prescription Charges (SCRAP) has started to hold public meetings across Scotland. Prescription charges are a disease at the heart of the NHS which eats away at the boast that our NHS was available to everyone regardless of income and background. Abolish tax on ill-health By TOMMY SHERIDAN MSP 27