Outrageous prescription charges

Without trying to sound too much like Victor Meldrew - I don't believe how expensive prescription charges are. I'm lucky and seldom need to see my doctor and consequently rarely need to get a prescription filled, but I was outraged today when my partner had to pay £7.10 for some antibiotics.

Many of you are, I'm sure, well aware how expensive it has become to get medicines from your GP. I don't know how cancer patients who aren't eligible for free prescriptions manage to afford all the medications they need. I hope people don't go without and suffer the side effects of their treatment.

What makes it all even more annoying is that there are such inequalities across the country. I don't begrudge the Welsh for having free prescriptions. Just as I won't the Scottish when theirs are free when 2011 arrives. But I do think it's unfair that the National Health Service doesn't seem to be national.

This isn't the only example of the inequalities that exist within the NHS. 'Postcode' prescribing has been around in cancer care for a long time (as I'm sure it is in many other areas of health care). Indeed, Cancerbackup has lobbied on many occasions for the postcode lottery to be abolished. And it's not just the English that lose out - for example, waiting times have fallen faster and further in England compared to Scotland and Wales.

I appreciate that prescription charges help to fund some of the important work that goes on in the NHS, and that in reality only 12% of prescriptions are actually paid for. The rest are covered by exemptions for children or the elderly. But it does seem a bit unfair that you have to pay because of the country you live in.

If you believe that cancer patients should not have to pay for prescriptions, join our campaign. Click here to read more and email a template letter, that you can personalise, to your MP and local paper.

Prescription charge campaign