§ Mr. Brightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will exempt long-term cancer patients from prescription charges; and what the estimated cost would be.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWhile we cannot make any reliable estimate of the cost of extending exemption to all cancer sufferers, over 60 per cent. of the estimated one million sufferers living in the community will already be exempt on age grounds. A proportion of the remainder will be exempt on low income grounds.
We receive regular requests to extend exemption to he remaining non-exempt cancer sufferers. We also receive requests to extend exemption to sufferers from a number of other conditions. In fairness we cannot take any one request in isolation and to accept them all would cost the NHS a considerable sum. Cancer also poses a particular problem as doctors sometimes exercise discretion over telling the sufferer the exact nature of the diagnosis. While 67W therefore we have a great deal of sympathy for cancer victims we have no plans to extend automatic exemption to them.