This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/cutting-free-prescriptions-poor-people-nhs-crisis
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Cutting free prescriptions punishes poor people. It won’t save the NHS | Cutting free prescriptions punishes poor people. It won’t save the NHS |
| (12 days later) | |
| The health service crisis wasn’t caused by free nappy rash cream for those who can’t afford it – but by years of Tory under-investment | |
| Contact author | |
| Thu 4 Jan 2018 08.00 GMT | |
| Last modified on Thu 4 Jan 2018 12.35 GMT | |
| Share on Facebook | |
| Share on Twitter | |
| Share via Email | |
| View more sharing options | |
| Share on LinkedIn | |
| Share on Pinterest | |
| Share on Google+ | |
| Share on WhatsApp | |
| Share on Messenger | |
| Close | |
| Reports of an NHS “winter crisis” have become a perennial part of the new year calendar. The British Red Cross last year declared the NHS to be experiencing a “humanitarian crisis”, with patients lying on trolleys in corridors waiting for a bed and stuck in ambulances outside A&E units. This new year there have been reports of long ambulance waits, overflowing hospitals, and NHS England taking the unprecedented move of postponing tens of thousands of patients’ surgery until the end of the month in order to avoid a “meltdown” in services. One A&E consultant apologised for “the third world conditions of the department due to overcrowding”. | Reports of an NHS “winter crisis” have become a perennial part of the new year calendar. The British Red Cross last year declared the NHS to be experiencing a “humanitarian crisis”, with patients lying on trolleys in corridors waiting for a bed and stuck in ambulances outside A&E units. This new year there have been reports of long ambulance waits, overflowing hospitals, and NHS England taking the unprecedented move of postponing tens of thousands of patients’ surgery until the end of the month in order to avoid a “meltdown” in services. One A&E consultant apologised for “the third world conditions of the department due to overcrowding”. |
| It’s no surprise that NHS bosses are proposing new measures to work within their ever-more-squeezed budgets. We’ve already seen restrictions on non-urgent surgeries for smokers and obese patients in some clinical commissioning groups and cutbacks on IVF treatment. Now, buried over the Christmas break, it emerged NHS England is proposing to cut free prescriptions for over-the-counter remedies, including treatments for conjunctivitis, haemorrhoids, minor burns and back pain. The move would reduce costs by £136m. | It’s no surprise that NHS bosses are proposing new measures to work within their ever-more-squeezed budgets. We’ve already seen restrictions on non-urgent surgeries for smokers and obese patients in some clinical commissioning groups and cutbacks on IVF treatment. Now, buried over the Christmas break, it emerged NHS England is proposing to cut free prescriptions for over-the-counter remedies, including treatments for conjunctivitis, haemorrhoids, minor burns and back pain. The move would reduce costs by £136m. |
| It’s sensible to look at how efficient the NHS’s spending is – for example, even as the Patients Association expressed concern about the proposal, it pointed out it was counterintuitive for the NHS to be paying pounds for medication if the individual can buy it for pence – but we should be deeply wary about any move that rolls back healthcare in the name of money saving. | It’s sensible to look at how efficient the NHS’s spending is – for example, even as the Patients Association expressed concern about the proposal, it pointed out it was counterintuitive for the NHS to be paying pounds for medication if the individual can buy it for pence – but we should be deeply wary about any move that rolls back healthcare in the name of money saving. |
| By definition of who currently relies on free prescriptions, cutting this service means largely targeting the very people who need financial help to stay well: from pensioners, disabled people and jobseekers to young people in education. If you haven’t got enough money to feed your children or pay the rent, spending £8.60 on a prescription is a luxury you can’t afford. | By definition of who currently relies on free prescriptions, cutting this service means largely targeting the very people who need financial help to stay well: from pensioners, disabled people and jobseekers to young people in education. If you haven’t got enough money to feed your children or pay the rent, spending £8.60 on a prescription is a luxury you can’t afford. |
| Health inequality is already disturbingly prevalent in this country; last month, the Nuffield Trust found children from poor families are far more likely to end up in hospital for a range of conditions than their richer counterparts. | Health inequality is already disturbingly prevalent in this country; last month, the Nuffield Trust found children from poor families are far more likely to end up in hospital for a range of conditions than their richer counterparts. |
| Look through the list of proposed cuts to free prescriptions and it brings up images of a Victorian view of poverty | Look through the list of proposed cuts to free prescriptions and it brings up images of a Victorian view of poverty |
| There’s a real danger that introducing measures such as cuts to free prescriptions further slides us towards the sort of nightmare two-tier system of treatment we routinely see in countries such as the US, where the poorest have to skip prescriptions because they simply can’t pay for them. | There’s a real danger that introducing measures such as cuts to free prescriptions further slides us towards the sort of nightmare two-tier system of treatment we routinely see in countries such as the US, where the poorest have to skip prescriptions because they simply can’t pay for them. |
| Look through the list of proposed cuts to free prescriptions and it brings up images of a Victorian view of poverty: the so-called lower classes left with lice, infant colic, ringworm and burns while the wealthy buy treatment and dignity. | Look through the list of proposed cuts to free prescriptions and it brings up images of a Victorian view of poverty: the so-called lower classes left with lice, infant colic, ringworm and burns while the wealthy buy treatment and dignity. |
| This is particularly worrying at a time of increasing financial pressure on low-income families. Squeezed wages, raised housing costs and cut benefits are already taking their toll on people’s health. Doctors are increasingly reporting cases of children with rickets because they don’t have enough to eat, while poor housing is leading to a rise in respiratory problems such as asthma (the poorest young people are now well over twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for the condition as the rich). Cutting free prescriptions is a double-edged sword: at a time in which social security cuts are leaving children hungry, healthcare cuts mean the NHS could refuse to provide them with vitamins and minerals they need to avoid becoming malnourished. | This is particularly worrying at a time of increasing financial pressure on low-income families. Squeezed wages, raised housing costs and cut benefits are already taking their toll on people’s health. Doctors are increasingly reporting cases of children with rickets because they don’t have enough to eat, while poor housing is leading to a rise in respiratory problems such as asthma (the poorest young people are now well over twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for the condition as the rich). Cutting free prescriptions is a double-edged sword: at a time in which social security cuts are leaving children hungry, healthcare cuts mean the NHS could refuse to provide them with vitamins and minerals they need to avoid becoming malnourished. |
| NHS England say there will be some measures in place to protect vulnerable patients: items prescribed for longer-term or more complex conditions wouldn’t be affected, and nor would prescriptions for minor illnesses that suggest something more serious. But introducing a system awarding help based on a set of criteria risks people falling through the gaps, particularly at a time of budget restraints. | NHS England say there will be some measures in place to protect vulnerable patients: items prescribed for longer-term or more complex conditions wouldn’t be affected, and nor would prescriptions for minor illnesses that suggest something more serious. But introducing a system awarding help based on a set of criteria risks people falling through the gaps, particularly at a time of budget restraints. |
| Some hard-pressed GPs are already responding to cuts in ways that are hitting marginalised patients. I’ve spoken to many severely ill people facing benefit assessments being charged £20 or more for a doctor’s note – or, in other words, a week’s worth of food. I’m now being contacted by disabled people who are being refused access to their own medical records because surgeries are inundated with benefit requests, leaving them without the evidence they need to have a chance of keeping their social security. (This is despite the fact GPs are required to provide records within 40 days under the Data Protection Act.) | Some hard-pressed GPs are already responding to cuts in ways that are hitting marginalised patients. I’ve spoken to many severely ill people facing benefit assessments being charged £20 or more for a doctor’s note – or, in other words, a week’s worth of food. I’m now being contacted by disabled people who are being refused access to their own medical records because surgeries are inundated with benefit requests, leaving them without the evidence they need to have a chance of keeping their social security. (This is despite the fact GPs are required to provide records within 40 days under the Data Protection Act.) |
| Like any costcutting measure that hits low-income families, restricting free prescriptions simply distracts from the bigger picture: in the last budget, when Philip Hammond announced extra health funding for 2018-19, it was less than half of the £4bn that NHS bosses had called for. A single mum who can’t afford nappy rash cream for her newborn isn’t the NHS’s real problem – it’s massive under-investment by pro-austerity Conservative governments. | Like any costcutting measure that hits low-income families, restricting free prescriptions simply distracts from the bigger picture: in the last budget, when Philip Hammond announced extra health funding for 2018-19, it was less than half of the £4bn that NHS bosses had called for. A single mum who can’t afford nappy rash cream for her newborn isn’t the NHS’s real problem – it’s massive under-investment by pro-austerity Conservative governments. |
| Finding ways to respond to the pressures on the NHS is going to be one of the crucial political issues of the next decade but how we go about it will shape not only the healthcare of the nation but the purpose of public services themselves. Seventy years ago this summer the NHS was founded on the principle of “Free at the point of need” and, as we tackle its modern demands, it’s a sentiment that’s as precious today. One thing is clear. When our public services are based on ability to pay, it’s the poorest and sickest who suffer. | Finding ways to respond to the pressures on the NHS is going to be one of the crucial political issues of the next decade but how we go about it will shape not only the healthcare of the nation but the purpose of public services themselves. Seventy years ago this summer the NHS was founded on the principle of “Free at the point of need” and, as we tackle its modern demands, it’s a sentiment that’s as precious today. One thing is clear. When our public services are based on ability to pay, it’s the poorest and sickest who suffer. |
| • Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist | • Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist |
| NHS | |
| Hardworking Britain | |
| Conservatives | |
| Inequality | |
| comment | |
| Share on Facebook | |
| Share on Twitter | |
| Share via Email | |
| Share on LinkedIn | |
| Share on Pinterest | |
| Share on Google+ | |
| Share on WhatsApp | |
| Share on Messenger | |
| Reuse this content |