The Welsh Finance Minister (Mrs Edwina Hart) has announced a freeze on prescription
charges in Wales (PJ, October 14, p538).
In a statement on October 19, Mrs Hart said that prescription charges for all
would be frozen and that, from April, 2001, everybody in Wales under 25 years
of age would be exempt from prescription charges.
Mrs Colleen Forse (secretary, Welsh Central Pharmaceutical Committee) told The
Journal on October 25: “The principle has been made, but the practicalities
have not been worked out.”
She explained that the scheme was expected to be based on the location of the
pharmacy at which prescriptions were dispensed, not the place of residence of
the patient. This meant that English students studying in Wales would get free
prescriptions while Welsh students studying in England would not.