Last Thursday I asked a question in the Scottish Parliament regarding the Executive review of Prescription Charges. Here's my questions, the answer I got and a subsequent article in the Evening News.
My initial question was
To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest position is on the review of NHS prescription charges for patients with long term conditions and on what date it expects to present the outcome of the review.
HIS REPLY – Soon!
Supplementary
Frankly Minister that answer is a disgrace
4 years ago the Executive promised to review prescription charges accepting the current exemption arrangements were not fit for purpose.
13months ago you asked Parliament to reject my Bill to abolish charges promising instead to bring forward proposals yourselves to exempt many long term conditions.
On Nov 10th in a Parliamentary answer to me the Minister promised to publish proposals ‘by the end of the year.’
And yet here we are barely a month away from the dissolution of Parliament and still you have produced nothing – not a word, not one exemption, nothing!
Isn’t it the case that all medical opinion over the last 40 years warned you, just as I did, against trying to ‘play god’ by choosing which debilitating conditions were more deserving than others.
And isn’t this Executive attempting to play fast and loose with this Parliament, run down the clock and renege on every single promise made to patients on the issue over the past 4 years.
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