Wednesday 31 Mar 2010 @ 13:09
Welsh Government
Welsh Government
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Free prescriptions helping to improve health in Wales
A new report on how free prescriptions are benefiting patients in Wales has been published by Health Minister Edwina Hart.
The report says:
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the policy has increased equity and access for hundreds of thousands of patients who were not previously entitled to free prescriptions, such as patients with asthma, heart disease or an organ transplant;
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free prescriptions are enabling thousands of people to live more independent lives and reducing the cost of unnecessary emergency admissions to hospital;
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the policy is helping to lift people out of poverty and into employment;
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the policy has had no unusual effect on the amount of prescriptions dispensed – the annual increase before and after free prescriptions was introduced has fluctuated between just under 4 and 6 per cent;
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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; and,
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the policy is not significantly increasing costs – the cost of prescriptions dispensed in 2009 increased by less than one per cent from the previous year with bigger year-on-year increases seen prior to 2007.
Mrs Hart said:
“Our free prescriptions policy is one of the major achievements of the Welsh Assembly Government.“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.“Likewise, there were people on benefits who may have been deterred from taking up jobs because they may have lost access to free prescriptions. Free prescriptions therefore remove the barrier to work and better health.“This report also 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.
It says there has been no significant increase in prescriptions dispensed as a result of the introduction of the policy.
For example, in 2009, the number of prescriptions dispensed was 67.6 million – a 3.9 per cent increase on the previous year.
There were some bigger year-on-year increases before the policy came into effect – between 2003 and 2004 there was a 5.8 per cent rise.
Neither has there been an increase in over the counter medicines such as teething gels being prescribed to more affluent people, the report says.
In the lead up to – and following the abolition of – prescription charges in Wales, a combination of items prescribed and medicines sold over the counter from community pharmacies have been monitored.
This included a basket of 22 established medicines typically purchased, but not prescribed, to manage minor ailments such as coughs and colds.
The reason for monitoring both prescription items and over the counter sales was to test the assumption that the number of prescription items for such medicines previously purchased would increase, whilst the sale of over the counter medicines would reduce in Wales compared to England.
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.
In fact, 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.
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