More than 1m asthma sufferers in England skip doses due to cost

[Northerner]

Asthma sufferers are rationing how much of their medication they take because they cannot afford to pay NHS prescription charges, a report has said.

An estimated 1.3 million people with asthma in England do not take their medication regularly because of the cost involved, according to a survey by the charity Asthma UK.

Sufferers who skip a dose risk having an asthma attack, needing a spell in hospital to undergo treatment or even dying, it warned.

About 4.5 million people in England have asthma. Of those, more than half – an estimated 2.3 million patients – have to pay prescription charges, which are currently £8.60 per item.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...a-sufferers-in-england-skip-doses-due-to-cost

Wrond They could solve this immediately by following the lead of the other parts of the UK and scrapping prescription charges - it they can do it, why can't England? There must be sufficient data to show whether it's actually a great cost to those nations, or otherwise. This sounds remarkably like the current problems in the USA with insulin costs soaring and people limiting their use - on a different scale of course, but wrong nonetheless

 

[mikeyB]

In Scotland, free prescriptions were established after the money men did all the sums, particularly the infrastructure needed to monitor the system, and found that is was more expensive to charge for prescriptions than to have them all free. They were as surprised as anyone.

What’s more, in that article they say 90% of prescriptions in local pharmacies are free. In Scotland, when the decision was made, that figure was closer to 70%. It’s a tax on illness that disproportionately affects poor people. There should be folks on the streets protesting about this, just like the Poll Tax. And from April, it’s £9 a pop. It’s just outrageous that England stands alone in the UK in charging for prescriptions, the government has no shame.

And I think medication should be free for chronic asthma. Medication is needed for life, just like diabetes, hypothyroidism and epilepsy.

 

[Northerner]

Fully agree with you Mike. I wonder if this is something that the Public Accounts Committee has scrutinised, and if so, what the conclusions were (and when).

 

[trophywench]

Well you know already I think it's heinous - but there a lot of things that the NHS makes complicated for itself that it doesn't need to. And that costs it money that shouldn't need to spend. I haven't managed to become fully au fait with the system but here's an eg. Following his prostatectomy which couldn't be nerve-sparing because the cancer wasn't wholly contained within the gland, my husband is left with ED. The long and short of it was - he wanted to try a vacuum pump which he is absolutely entitled to have NP.

The problem that arose was that because the hospital had only said 'Please prescribe him one', without saying which make and model - then the cost of the item would not be met from the hospital budget - because that's the way our CCG have decreed it must be. Hence - the actual GP surgery would land up paying for it since the pharmacy would not be able to submit the prescription to 'the NHS' along with all the normal prescriptions.

Now - the hospital were blissfully unaware of this because the CCG only bothered to inform GP surgeries of this - in other words had only done half a job. The Urology dept at the hospital got it sorted out with the CCG but it took over a month. Ridiculous.

Typical thing with a large organisation who can't see the whole picture yet are responsible for making decisions that affect people's lives.

 

[mikeyB]

Fully agree with you Mike. I wonder if this is something that the Public Accounts Committee has scrutinised, and if so, what the conclusions were (and when).

They don’t need to scrutinise it. It’s already been done in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If the English government ask nicely, they might find out from the rest of the UK why their NHS hasn’t gone skint with free prescriptions.

The NHS was founded on the pauper being able to obtain the same treatment as the well off, not restoring the differential so that only those with disposable income can afford treatment.