Plans to scrap prescription charges for long-term conditions may fall by the wayside in the build-up to next year’s general election, an Asthma UK spokesman has warned.
Last year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed that prescription charge exemptions were planned for patients with long-term conditions. The DoH asked Royal College of Physicians’ president Professor Ian Gilmore to lead a review into how exemptions could work. Professor Gilmore’s review has yet to be published, however.
Asthma UK is leading the Prescription Charges Coalition, a group of organisations campaigning for the government to abolish prescription charges for people with long-term conditions. The charity’s director of policy and public affairs, Mikis Euripides, said the government needs to publish Professor Gilmore’s review and details of its plans early in 2010 if the changes are to take place.
“The government will need to introduce legislation,” he said. “Assuming there is a May general election, it will need to do that by February because of the time it will take. We are concerned that if nothing happens, the government won’t have enough time.”
If the election were earlier than May, it would already be too late to put legislation through, he added.
Read more at Healthcare Republic.
Tags: Prescription charges
