An excellent response by a patient with long term illness to the announcement that drugs costing over £20 will have the cost to the NHS and “Funded by the British taxpayer” displayed on the pack. There was no consultation about this and most of the pharmacists I’ve talked to about this don’t approve either. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s response can be read here. As always, comments are welcome in the section below, with some ground rules for safe discussions.
So, as of 2016, all medication prescribed by the NHS and costing more than £20 is going to have the price listed on the packet, along with the message “Paid for by the British Taxpayer”.
The Tories claim this is to “hammer home to patients that these drugs aren’t ‘free’, and that wasting them costs the Taxpayer money”.
Right then.
It takes a good eye to not view this as “Tories trying to guilt-trip the disabled into taking less medication”.
First, let us look at “Funded by the British Taxpayer”. This does two things – It posits that anyone taking a prescription is not a taxpayer and subtly, somehow, not British. After all, it’s not British to just take something for free, we’re a nation of hardworking families. Definitely not inclusive of disabled people, who are both more likely to not work and more likely to be single or childless…
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A Prescription for M.E. 