Viewpoint: High cost of script fee injustice

Opinion

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Editor: Martin Lindsay

Monday, May 19, 2008

One in three of us will, at some stage in our lives, hear the devastating diagnosis of cancer. The disease brings reactions as varied as the people who contract it: grief, determination, courage ... But according to MacMillan Cancer Support, most cancer sufferers will have one thing in common: at this crucial moment, 90% will see a drop in income as they concentrate on battling for their lives.

At the same time, they will have to find the money to pay for essential medicines to treat their illness and the many side effects.

This is too much of a burden — not just for those who contract cancer, but for many others fighting serious, chronic diseases and conditions. For more than a year, this newspaper's 'Free For All' campaign has called for the abolition of prescription charges to help ease the load on those with ill health.

During a debate in the Assembly last year, the full breadth of political opinion in Northern Ireland backed our position. "The inequalities of prescription charges cannot continue," Health Minister Michael McGimpsey told MLAs. They agreed, but there has been no change in the system in the intervening 12 months.

That system is inconsistent. People with diabetes and epilepsy are entitled to free prescriptions, while others suffering from multiple sclerosis, heart disease, asthma and indeed cancer must pay.

The National Health Service is famously supposed to be free at the point of care from the cradle to the grave. When the point of care is your own home, where you administer necessary treatments, that should not be treated as an exception. Mr McGimpsey has taken steps towards dealing with the inequities. He has reaffirmed his own belief in abolition. He has frozen the price of individual prescriptions at £6.85, instead of putting them up with inflation. His department has carried out a cost and benefit review of the situation, which deals with every scenario from doing nothing to full abolition. The problem, as ever in the National Health Service, is money. The increased costs associated with free prescriptions would have to be borne elsewhere. That either means a new, magical source of cash or cuts elsewhere. No Ministers yet seem prepared to see their own budgets shrink substantially for the benefit of the ill.

That may be the result of a design flaw in the Executive. Ministers — including the man who holds the purse strings, Finance Minister Peter Robinson — have no political incentive to see Ministers from other parties succeed. It's possible that there is a reluctance here to see Mr McGimpsey succeed. They should look at the bigger picture. One of themes of the Executive's first year has been apparent inactivity. Nearly three-quarters of the people who took part in a recent Belfast Telegraph poll indicated devolution has made no difference to their lives.

Prescription charges is exactly the type of issue where they could make a difference. If our leaders agree with the goal but have a problem with the means, they should say so and fight their corner. If they simply agree, they need to do something about it. Otherwise, they risk appearing like they're stuck in the direct rule mentality of demanding everything while accomplishing nothing.