§ 18. Mr. Deanasked the Minister of Health why certain spectacle lenses, in particular Zeiss T coated lenses and Stigmacoat lenses, which were formerly available on National Health Service prescription, are now available only on payment of the full charge and at more than double the cost to the patient.
§ Mr. LoughlinThere has never been provision of such lenses under the supplementary ophthalmic service. They could be supplied under the hospital eye service instead of ordinary National Health Service lenses without extra charge if they were considered clinically necessary in a particular case.
§ Mr. DeanDoes not the hon. Gentleman agree that this involves duplication of service, when a patient has to go first to an optician and then perhaps to the hospital, and also additional time lost for the patient? Would he further agree that many people who have used the eye service and the dental service in recent months have a suspicion that his right hon. Friend is so worried about the loss of revenue from the prescription charge that he is trying to get in more money from those charges which still exist?
§ Mr. LoughlinI cannot understand the hon. Gentleman. If what the hon. Gentleman demands were to come into effect it would inevitably involve additional cost to the Exchequer for these spectacles. We say that where the spectacles are required for clinical purposes they can be supplied through the hospital, but we are not prepared at this stage to put them on general prescription.