Praise For Free Welsh Prescriptions

As people in Northern Ireland enjoy free NHS prescriptions for the first time from today, a report has been published on the success of a similar scheme in Wales.

Revealing the findings, Welsh Health Minister Edwina Hart said the policy has increased equity and access for hundreds of thousands of patients who were not previously entitled to free prescriptions,

This includes suffers of asthma, heart disease or those an organ transplant.

Ms Hart said free prescriptions are helping to lift people out of poverty and into employment.

It has had no unusual effect on the amount of prescriptions dispensed, the report found.

The annual increase before and after free prescriptions was introduced has fluctuated between just under four and six percent.

Health officials in Wales said there is no evidence that free prescriptions have resulted in an increase of over-the-counter medicines being prescribed to better-off people taking advantage of the exemption of charges.

"Free prescriptions are a long-term investment in improving health. If people are put off seeking appropriate care, due to financial reasons, their health will not improve," said Ms Hart.

"This report aims to dispel some unfounded accusations, including that it is subsidising millionaires and that it is a costly gimmick."

The report says patients with heart disease who were previously ineligible for free prescriptions make up the largest group in terms of items dispensed – with almost a third of the prescriptions issued in 2009 – helping to keep people out of hospital and reducing the cost to the NHS.

Critics assumed that in the run-up to the abolition of the prescription charge in Wales and thereafter the sale of products in the basket of medicines from community pharmacies in Wales would decrease compared to England.

However, there was little change observed in Wales when studied over the period from 2003/04 to 2008/09.

In the same way that the introduction of the policy has had no noticeable increase on the number of prescriptions dispensed, neither has it on the cost of prescriptions dispensed.

(PR/GK)