HC Deb 13 February 1968 vol 758 cc1113-7
1. Mr. Biffen

asked the Minister of Health if he will make a statement on his progress in finding a definition of the chronic sick for the purposes of exemption from prescription charges.

3. Dr. David Kerr

asked the Minister of Health what exemptions he has arranged from the need for paying prescription charges from 1st April.

6. Mr. Winnick

asked the Minister of Health if he will make a statement on the consultations he has had with interested bodies on exemptions from prescription charges; and what decision has been reached.

29. Mr. Gwilym Roberts

asked the Minister of Health whether, when prescription charges are reintroduced, in the interests of simplicity of administration, he will consider using two types of pre- scription form, one type being for free prescriptions and the other involving payment.

30. Mr. Barnes

asked the Minister of Health what estimates he has made of the size of that section of the population who, though qualifying for exemption from prescription charges on income grounds, will have to claim refunds on account of the fact that they cannot be satisfactorily identified.

31. Mr. Dean

asked the Minister of Health whether he will give an assurance that arrangements for the exemption of certain groups from any prescription charge will start simultaneously with the introduction of a 2s. 6d. per item prescription charge.

36. Mr. Boston

asked the Minister of Health what progress he is making in his discussions about administrative arrangements for the prescription charge; and if he will ensure that those people who are to be protected from the charge will not be made to pay the charge and then have to reclaim it, but that they will be exempted from payment of the charge in the first place.

39. Mr. Hooley

asked the Minister of Health when he will announce his complete scheme of exemptions from prescription charges.

43. Mr. Kenneth Lewis

asked the Minister of Health what have been the results of his discussions with the medical profession on securing suitable arrangements for exemptions from paying prescription charges.

83. Mr. Ednyfed Hudson Davies

asked the Minister of Health what results have been achieved in discussions with the medical profession over defining grounds of exemption from the payment of prescription charges when they are reintroduced.

The Minister of Health (Mr. Kenneth Robinson)

I have little to add as yet to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 16th January. Discussions with the medical profession are proceeding and I hope soon to start discussions with the other interests concerned. I shall inform the House about the outcome of these consultations in due course.—[Vol. 756, c. 1587.]

Mr. Biffen

In the meantime, pending the subsequent statement which he hopes to make, can the right hon. Gentleman give an undertaking that, whatever mechanism of selective exemption is applied by the Government, it will be one which will minimise the burden placed upon the general practitioners?

Mr. Robinson

That is certainly one of the objectives in these discussions.

Dr. Kerr

Is my right hon. Friend alive to the fact that we are about six weeks away from the proposed date for the introduction of the scheme? Does he not think that the indignity of personal sickness is not lightly to be added to by the indignity of placing people in categories? Would he talk to his colleagues in the Cabinet who know much less about human problems than he does, and tell them of the feelings of so many of us on this side of the House?

Mr. Robinson

I do not think that there is any indignity in seeking to exempt from these charges those upon whom they might bear oppressively.

Mr. Winnick

Is it not the case that if there was a proper scheme for exemptions the amount of saving would be much smaller than was announced earlier? Is the Minister aware, although I know that he is not personally to be blamed for this, of the very deep feelings inside the Labour movement to any such charge being brought in?

Mr. Robinson

Of course I know that a number of people have deep feelings and I well understand that. As to the estimated savings, these were the best estimates we could make and nothing that has transpired since vitiates them.

Mr. Roberts

Would the Minister agree that whatever mechanism is eventually adopted, it should be based on exemption rather than repayment, because our experience of previous prescription charges shows that such a system is completely inefficient?

Mr. Robinson

This was the purpose of seeking to arrange an exemption scheme. It will be backed by a refund scheme for those who may suffer personal hardship and would not come within the exempted categories.

Mr. Barnes

Would my right hon. Friend not agree that the whole business of refunds and of trying to persuade people to claim them is the wrong sort of selectivity because it is essentially divisive? Are prescription charges really worth all the administration and political trouble that they will cause?

Mr. Robinson

I am considering with my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Social Security measures to ensure that the groups that will be entitled to have charges remitted or refunded are fully aware of the arrangements which will apply to them.

Mr. Dean

Is not the Minister saying that some people whom he wishes to exempt will have to pay charges because he has not finished his homework?

Mr. Robinson

No, Sir, that is not what I said at all. What I said was that we were maintaining the arrangements that obtained when the hon. Gentleman's party was in power, and introduced these prescription charges, for relieving people on grounds of personal hardship, quite apart from other categories of persons who will be exempt altogether from paying the charge.

Mr. Boston

Does my right hon. Friend appreciate that very real hardship was caused last time there were prescription charges, when people had to pay in the first place and then claim the refunds? Is he aware that they found this very difficult, because they could not afford the money in the first place? Can he try to find a way round this problem?

Mr. Robinson

Yes, I am aware of this and that is why we are attempting to introduce a scheme wholly different from the scheme that we got rid of three years ago.

Mr. Hooley

Is the Minister not now persuaded that it is administratively impossible to produce an equitable scheme of exemption?

Mr. Robinson

No, Sir.

Mr. Lewis

In any exemption scheme, would the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that the greatest hardship falls on people who have to have more than one prescription at a time? The person who has to have one prescription is not very hardly dealt with.

Mr. Robinson

That point will certainly be borne in mind.

Lord Balniel

The right hon. Gentleman has misunderstood my hon. Friend's question. Is it the Government's intention to introduce prescription charges before the machinery for exempting the elderly and chronic sick is in operation?

Mr. Robinson

That was not, as I understood it, what the hon. Gentleman asked. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has already stated that regulations bringing the charges into operation will be made in the spring simultaneously with the reintroduction of the arrangements for refunding charges. Whether exemptions can be introduced simultaneously with the reintroduction of the charges will depend on how soon the arrangements can be worked out and brought into operation, but it is my hope that they can be.

Dr. Dunwoody

Would my right hon. Friend assure the House that prescription charges will not be introduced until a fair and comprehensive system of exemption for the chronic sick has been evolved?

Mr. Robinson

My last supplementary reply dealt with that point.

Mr. Pavitt

Would my right hon. Friend have a look at all the anomalies surrounding exemption and ensure that any scheme introduced does not have more anomalies than exemptions?

Mr. Robinson

I will try to devise the fairest possible scheme.