Free prescriptions for all in Scotland... and never mind austerity for the rest of us!

No charge: Patients will not have to pay anything for prescription medicine in Scotland

The Scottish Parliament has ignored the age of austerity and voted in favour of free prescriptions for all patients north of the border.



While the English are tightening their belts in the wake of the credit crunch, Scotland will spend millions of pounds to abolish prescription charges.



It is the latest example of ‘medical apartheid’, where the devolved nations enjoy better health services despite paying far less tax per head.

Scots also get free personal care in old age, while their students pay no tuition fees – unlike those born in England.

The latest move means English patients will be forced to pay prescription charges – currently £7.20 per item – while effectively subsidising free drugs for those elsewhere in the UK.



Prescriptions are already free in Wales and Northern Ireland. Labour had planned to offer all patients with long-term conditions free prescriptions, but the Coalition scrapped this on taking office, citing a lack of money.

As well as getting free prescriptions, Scottish people receive free eye tests (compared to an English charge of around £19) and free ‘personal care’ in old age, while English pensioners have to pay full residential care costs if they own assets of more than £23,000.

To top it all, Scottish students pay no tuition fees, even if they attend a university in England. Students born south of the border face paying up to £9,000 a year.

The pledge to scrap the NHS prescription charges – currently £3 in Scotland – was made by the Scottish National Party in 2007, before the credit crunch.



Yesterday members of the Scottish Parliament voted to go ahead with the plan, despite the current financial stringency. The SNP was supported by Labour, with the Tories and the Lib Dems voting against the largesse.

Long-term investment: Public health minister Shona Robison

SNP public health minister Shona Robison said lifting the charge would save money in the long term, and would no longer put people off going to see their doctor.



She said: ‘We believe that free prescriptions are a long-term investment in improving health. If people are put off seeking appropriate care for financial reasons their health will not improve, but if patients can get the treatment they need it will not only help their health but ultimately help to reduce the longer term costs to the health service as well.



‘Importantly, abolition will help all those people who have long-term health conditions which don’t currently entitle them to exemptions.’



Some Scots fear the move could lead to ‘prescription tourism’, with English people flocking to Scottish doctors when the free prescriptions become available on April 1. There are indications this has already happened along the Welsh border.



English patients close to the border will be able to get free prescriptions in Scotland only if they are registered with a Scottish GP.



The Patients Association has long campaigned for free prescriptions in all parts of the UK.



A spokesman said: ‘We are all paying into the NHS, so why are English patients discriminated against purely on the grounds of geography? It’s a postcode lottery of the worst kind, which cuts across the founding principles of the NHS; hitting people who can do nothing about it at their time of greatest need.’



When the NHS was established by Labour in 1948, all prescriptions were free. Charging was introduced three years later to pay for increased defence spending and the then health secretary Aneurin Bevan resigned in disgust.



A wide range of people do not pay, including schoolchildren, pensioners, people on income support and the unemployed.



Three years ago, when Northern Ireland joined the list of devolved nations offering free prescriptions, the British Heart Foundation said: ‘Until prescription charges are lifted, England will remain the poor man of the UK in regards to relieving the financial burden on heart patients.



‘It is unfair that any heart patient should have to pay prescription charges for essential and lifesaving drugs.’



Scotland can afford better services than England as a result of the much-maligned Barnett Formula, an agreement reached in 1978 to share money between the nations and regions of the UK.



Even taking into account greater levels of deprivation in Scotland, people north of the border receive more public funds per head, yet pay less tax.



