LABOUR HYPOCRISY ON PRESCRIPTION CHARGES

LABOUR HYPOCRISY ON PRESCRIPTION CHARGES

BROWN SHELVES PRESCRIPTION PROMISE

The SNP have rounded on Labour hypocrisy on prescription charges after
it emerged Gordon Brown is set to shelve a promise made in 2008 to
give people with long-term health conditions free prescriptions.

Earlier this week Labour’s Health spokesperson in the Scottish
Parliament, Jackie Baillie, attacked the Scottish Government over
prescription charges saying that patients suffering from a
debilitating long-term illness have to pay for prescriptions in
Scotland when they are free in other parts of UK. However patients
with long-term conditions in England are in fact paying more than
double the cost for a 12-month pre-payment certificate than in
Scotland.

The SNP Government has been reducing prescription charges year on year
since it took office and plans to abolish them completely for ALL
illnesses by the end of the Parliamentary session. In contrast Labour
has only abolished charges for cancer sufferers, a move which has
alienated sufferers of other long-term conditions who have questioned
why they are not given parity of treatment.

Commenting Dr McKee, a former GP, said:

“News that Gordon Brown is now set to shelve his promise on
prescription charges is not just a betrayal with patients, but
underlines the total hypocrisy of Labour in the Scottish Parliament.

“In contrast the SNP Government are abolishing prescription charges
for all conditions and we will thankfully see this tax on ill health
abolished next year.

“The early evidence of the first reductions show that it is those with
long term conditions who have to live with the cost of medicines who
have benefited most from these cuts.

“Prescription charges are a tax on ill health and are unacceptable in
a modern society. It is only the election of an SNP Government which
is bringing about their abolition.”