Prescription charges axed in Northern Ireland

Macmillan celebrates campaign success

Prescription charges will be scrapped in Northern Ireland by 2010. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey announced today that charges will be reduced to £3 in January next year, before being abolished in April 2010.

The announcement comes after years of campaigning by Macmillan, which led the call for free prescriptions in Northern Ireland.

General Manager of Macmillan in Northern Ireland, Heather Monteverde said:

"Cancer patients here have been struggling to pay these unfair charges for too long and it is fantastic news that the 55,000 people living with cancer in Northern Ireland, along with other people who require medication, will no longer face this added burden.

"Most cancer patients face a simultaneous drop in income and an increase in costs - for things like heating and travel to hospital - so the added expense of prescription charges often drove people to make choices between medicines and other outgoings. We would like to congratulate the health minister for this decision, and look forward to its implementation in 2010.

"Macmillan has been campaigning to have prescription charges for cancer patients abolished for a number of years. We are delighted the minister has listened to us and to all those who demanded free prescriptions."

In announcing free prescriptions for everyone in Northern Ireland, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey, said:

"'I have heard Macmillan Cancer Support, and others, report how people with cancer across Northern Ireland are having to ask their pharmacists to prioritise the items on their prescriptions as they can't afford them all.

"It is simply unacceptable that those who are ill should have to worry about finding money for vital drugs which they cannot afford. This is totally against the ethos of a health service which promises free health and social care to all.

"A cradle to grave health service, free at the point of delivery, is the founding principle of the NHS which was founded 60 years ago this year. It is a principle that I, and the entire population of Northern Ireland, wholeheartedly support."

The NI announcement means that Macmillan's campaigning on prescription charges has been successful in all four nations. Wales has already scrapped prescription charges and last week Gordon Brown announced that they would be abolished for cancer patients in England. The charges are being phased out in Scotland and will be totally scrapped by April 2011.

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For more information contact Michelle Gallacher on 0131 2603720 or at mgallacher@macmillan.org.uk.

Read about the abolition of prescription charges for cancer patients in England here.

Find out more about our campaigns and how you can take action here.