Patients face paying for medicines in bid to plug £600m black hole as NHS cracks down on free prescriptions

 Queue in CHP titled prescriptions, use fifth on in of two woman talking over counter, and also use wee graphic from page 2

Get copy from page one and two 

Health chiefs have launched a crackdown on free prescriptions in Scotland in a bid to plug a £600million black hole.

Patients could soon have to pay over the counter for medicines such as paracetamol/tramadol, acne medicines, herbal treatments, homeopathy products and bath and shower creams.

Health bosses have proposed a list of 17 items which should no longer be prescribed to patients on the NHS.

The treatments are considered to be of ‘low clinical value’ and their removal from NHS free prescriptions will save £3.8million a year.

Cold medicines such as cough mixtures, decongestants and throat lozenges, herbal remedies and general multivitamins, as well as some remedies for trapped wind, may be added to the list.

Benzodiazepines for anxious flyers could also be ruled out. Doctors have been urged to reduce the use of antibiotics in some circumstances amid global concerns about increasing resistance among patients.

The proposals follow warnings of a black hole in health funding of between £500million and £600million this year.

Scottish Conservative deputy health spokesman Tess White said: ‘This is a direct consequence of 17 years of the SNP’s disastrous mismanagement of Scotland’s NHS.

 Their overwhelming failures have created a huge black hole in the finances of the health service and pushed staff and services beyond breaking point.’

She added: ‘It is crucial that the growing costs of issuing prescriptions across Scotland always deliver value for money for hard-pressed taxpayers. 

However, ministers must also reassure affected patients that they won’t be adversely impacted if these particular medicines will no longer be available to them without charge.’

A consultation published by the Scottish Government yesterday ‘provides guidance for NHS health boards and clinicians, to minimise the unwarranted variation in the prescribing of medicines and make the most efficient use of resources’, and ‘supports the principles of realistic medicine through shared decision making, encouraging medicine review, and ensuring medicines are not prescribed inappropriately’. 

It continues: ‘Good prescribing dictates that the choice of therapy should be made in discussion with the individual and on the basis of good clinical evidence of efficacy, safety, value and acceptability.’

The consultation lists 17 products of ‘low clinical value’ which were prescribed to patients at a total cost of £3,847,247 in 2022/23. 

This includes bath and shower emollients – routinely prescribed for dry skin conditions such as eczema and dermatitis – which cost £1,224,332.

Herbal treatments are also recommended to be removed from NHS prescription because of a ‘lack of scientific evidence’.

Caroline Lamb, the chief executive of NHS Scotland, wrote to all NHS chief executives last month warning of a ‘true gap’ in health board spending for 2024-25 of between £500million and £600million.

She wrote: ‘This is simply not an acceptable level.’

The new consultation also suggests cutting the cost of blood glucose monitoring strips and insulin pen needles, and it sets out plans to ‘minimise’ the use of antibiotic treatments ‘for symptoms such as coughs, colds, sore throats, and earache in otherwise fit and healthy people’.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Work is under way to optimise the use of medicines in Scotland.’