Prescription charge increases ‘won’t exceed inflation’

The Department of Health today announced that increases to prescription charges this year will not be higher than the rate of inflation. The government notes that it is the ninth consecutive year that price increases have been at or below the rate of inflation.

Last year the government launched a review of prescription charges that is due to report by July 2007.

The remit of the report includes the options to revise medical exemptions to prescription charges, the introduction of a flat-rate charge with no exemptions, or a system by which exemptions are granted only on the basis of income.

Lord Hunt, health minister, said: “There will be an increase of 20 pence in prescription charges in England, taking the charge for a single prescription item to ?6.85 from April 1st 2007.”

He added that at present, 87 per cent of prescription items are currently dispensed by the health services free of charge as a result of its exemptions policy.

In April 2005, the government announced a “new era” of pharmacy in the UK, introducing a system by which physicians can give patients a prescription lasting a full year, with pharmacists dispensing medication as and when it is needed.