HC Deb 20 December 1994 vol 251 cc1143-4W
Mr. McLoughlin

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many items on NHS prescriptions were dispensed in 1993;

(2) how many and what percentage of NHS patients had to pay the full cost of their prescriptions in the latest year for which figures are available;

(3) how many items on NHS prescriptions dispensed in 1993 cost less than the charge for the prescription.

Mr. Malone

In 1993, some 445.43 million prescription items were dispensed by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors or personally administered to patients by prescribing doctors in England, of which an estimated 222.825 million had a total cost of less than the prescription charge. Figures for the number of patients who paid prescription charges are not available.

Mr. McLoughlin

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the criteria that enable NHS patients to get their prescriptions free of charge.

Mr. Malone

The categories of patient exempt from, or entitled to remission of charges for prescribed drugs and appliances dispensed by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors are shown in the table. Drugs and appliances personally administered or applied to patients by general medical practitioners and prescribing nurses, supplied to hospital in-patients and prescribed for contraceptive purposes or for the treatment of venereal disease are free.

Patients exempt from, or entitled to remission of, charges for prescribed drugs and appliances dispensed by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors:

EXEMPT

  • Children under 16;
  • Young people under 19 in full-time education;
  • Men aged 65 and over
  • Women aged 60 and over
  • Pregnant women and women who have had a baby in the last 12 months;
  • Recipients of war service disablement pensions whose treatment is for their pensionable disability;
    • People with one of the following medical conditions;
    • Permanent fistula (including caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy, ileostomy or urostomy) requiring continuous surgical dressings or an appliance;
    • Forms of hypoadrenalism (including Addison's disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential;
    • Diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism;
    • Diabetes Mellitus except where treatment is by diet alone;
    • Hypoparathyroidism;
    • Myasthenia gravis;
    • Myxoedema, or other conditions where supplemental thyroid hormone is necessary;
    • Epilepsy requiring continuous anti-convulsive therapy;
    • A continuing physical disability which prevents the patient from leaving home except with the help of another person.

CHARGE REMISSION

  • Recipients of income support and their partners;
  • Recipients of family credit and their partners;
  • Holders of AG2 certificates for full help under the NHS low income scheme and their partners

Mr. McLoughlin

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans there are to reconsider the present level of prescription charges; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Malone

Judgments are made each year about how finite health resources can be best targeted for maximum health gain. Perscription charges are one aspect of these considerations. An announcement will be made at the appropriate time.