The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7340 p287
12 March 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Related websites
DoH: Prescription charge increase stays the same

Prescription charges change

Prescription charges are to go up by 10p to £6.50 on 1 April in Scotland. In Wales, the prescription charge will be cut.

The Scottish Executive’s deputy health minister Rhona Brankin said: “This continues the recent trend of modest increases in charges, which will help maintain the contribution that prescriptions make towards the cost of the NHS. With a rise of 1.6 per cent, this is the sixth year in a row in which charges have increased below the rate of inflation.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly said that the prescription charge in Wales will be cut to £4 per item on 1 April. This is the latest step in the Assembly’s plan to make all prescriptions free in 2007.

The Department of Health in England was to make an announcement on prescription charges after The Journal went to press.


News feature, p293