NHS prescription charges

In 2009, DTB published an editorial calling for the abolition of the NHS prescription charge.1 The article highlighted that from April 2011, England would be the only UK country that would tax patients for medicines through levying a prescription charge. In addition, it noted that the categorisation of medical and other exemptions is illogical and that the prescription charge is a poorly conceived, manifestly unfair tax. Of particular concern is the impact of the prescription charge on patients with chronic conditions that do not fall into the exemption categories. For many years the Prescription Charges Coalition, an alliance of more than 30 organisations concerned with the impact of prescription charges on people with long-term conditions, has campaigned to extend exemption from prescription charges to all those with long-term conditions.2 A subsequent DTB editorial, published in 2014, discussed anomalies associated with the prescription charge, including the cost of administering the bureaucracy needed to underpin the collection and checking of exemptions, and management of pre-payment certification.3 The editorial repeated the call for prescription charges to be abolished. Revisiting these themes, here we present an overview of the results of a survey conducted to explore the views of healthcare professionals on the NHS prescription charge.