The Scottish Government

Listen

Prescription charges

28/01/2009

The first six monthly analysis of the impact of reducing prescription charges has shown that double the number of Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates (PPCs) were bought by patients in Scotland following a 51 per cent cut in price introduced by the Scottish Government last April.

Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates can be purchased for a 4 or 12 month period and cover the cost of all NHS prescriptions over that time. These are of real benefit to patients who require large amounts of medication and to whom cost is a barrier to collecting some of the medication

Data from NHSScotland provided to the Scottish Government show that between April and September 2008:

• 148,123 four month Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates were purchased
• 48,673 annual Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates were purchased
• 4.93million items were dispensed to patients who were not exempt from paying prescription charges

Compared to the data for the same period on 2007, when:

• 74,054 four month Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates were purchased
• 21,028 annual Prescription Pre-Payment Certificates were purchased
• 4.77 million items were dispensed to patients who were not exempt from paying prescription charges

Commenting on the figures, Ms Sturgeon said:

"I was very pleased to learn that the uptake of PPCs has more than doubled compared to the same period for 2007-08. This confirms that our policy is already benefitting patients who require large amounts of medication.

"It was our clear intention to encourage people who may previously have been deterred by cost to take-up their prescriptions.

"I understand early evidence suggests PPCs are being used by patients with long-term conditions. This clearly indicates that Scotland's patients are already benefitting from this change in policy.

"Of course, the remaining NHS prescription charges may still act as a barrier to some which is why the Scottish Government will shortly introduce regulations to further reduce all prescription charges from April this year.

"All NHS prescription charges will be abolished by 2011, ensuring equality for all patients regardless of their health needs."

In-line with the Scottish Government's policy to reduce charges before full abolition of the prescription charge, regulations will shortly be introduced to the Scottish Parliament proposing that from April 1 2009, the charge for a single prescription will be reduced further from £5 to £4. This charge was first reduced on April 1 from £6.85 to £5. It will also propose that the price of a twelve month PPC will be reduced from £48 to £38 and the price of a four month PPC will be reduced from £17 to £13.

In December 2007 the Scottish Government announced its decision to abolish prescription charges for all patients in Scotland from April 2011. A reduction in charges began in April 2008 and the phasing out of charges is planned as follows:

The information provided by ISD Scotland was:

These figures are currently sourced from NHS management data held by NHS National Services Scotland. ISD plans to publish them regularly as official statistics in future.