Prescription charges consultation

The Scottish Government has published its consultation on reforming the system of prescription charges in Scotland. The Government realises that the current system of exemptions is unfair and say in the introduction to its paper: 'a patient with diabetes and asthma will obtain all their asthma medication free whereas someone with asthma alone will have to pay for the same medication.' The consultation is now closed and we are waiting to hear from the Government how they are planning to bring reform forward.  the Government has proposed a number of options for change:

  • To review the criteria by which chronic conditions are defined and consider the therapeutic categories of drugs that are essential to their treatment, where that consideration is carried out by an expert group.
  • Link exemption to the drug and not the condition.
  • Convert the medical exemption category to a ‘high prescription user’ category.

 Asthma UK Scotland has responded to the consultation and you can read our response here.