Brown to scrap prescription costs for cancer patients
pharmafile | September 24, 2008 | News story | |Â Â Cancer, NHSÂ
Patients suffering from cancer won't have to pay for prescriptions after April next year under new government plans.
Prime minister Gordon Brown announced the policy change at the Labour party conference and said the benefit would eventually be extended to all patients with other long-term conditions.
"Our plan is next year to abolish all prescription charges for everyone with cancer. And this is not the limit of our commitment to a fair NHS. In the long term, the NHS generates cash savings in its budget we will plough savings back into abolishing charges for all patients with long-term conditions," he said.
Scrapping cancer prescription charges will cost the government an estimated £20 million, which will rise to £300 million a year once other conditions are covered, according to the Times.
Patient groups have welcomed the news, as many have long complained about the unfairness of forcing people with conditions such as Parkinson's and asthma, as well as cancer, to pay repeatedly for their drugs.
But the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) believes that the move could be prove problematic in practice.
The chair of its pharmacy board Beth Taylor said: "Gordon Brown's commitment to abolish charges for all patients with long-term conditions is conditional on the NHS generating cash savings from the drugs budget.
"This may not be as easy as he thinks and we do not think his promise should be conditional. Patients should not have to pay if the NHS fails to deliver savings in the drugs budget."
If the government does need to find bigger savings, it may mean that ministers attempt to squeeze pharma further on pricing to come up with the cash.
Industry body the ABPI has not yet formally commented on the issue, but said that at this time it does not see the move will have a huge impact on pharma.
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