Patients Play Russian Roulette With Health to Pay for Medicines
By SHAN ROSS and ALISON HARDIE
PATIENTS with chronic illnesses must play “Russian roulette” with their health as financial pressures force them to gamble on which prescribed drugs to pay for and which to reject.
Health professionals say people from across society are trying to “manage without” as they struggle to meet their household bills on top of their prescription charges.
The Scotsman’s Change the Charges campaign is calling on the Scottish Executive to scrap prescription charges for people suffering from chronic or life-threatening conditions.
The campaign has received a huge response from readers and the backing of campaigners, politicians and health professionals.
In a letter to The Scotsman today, the Social Market Foundation think-tank adds its voice to the calls for an overhaul of prescription charging in Scotland.
The situation is particularly acute for those who have multiple sclerosis (MS), which can require multiple prescriptions.
Alan Izat, an MS specialist nurse with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said he had seen patients trying to juggle their financial commitments. “Someone with MS may be struggling with work and cut their hours, but they still have to pay for prescriptions. A lot of the medication they take is interactive, so they need to buy all the items.
“But if they are paying a mortgage and council tax and other bills, something has to give. If they don’t take all the medication they will have more fatigue problems at work or more pain. Some people are hard-pressed to find the GBP 95.30 one-off annual payment and if they get all the medication they are struggling to put food on the table.”
A nurse with more than 30 years’ nursing experience said: “Every time I see prescription charges going up it makes me so angry. If someone has quite a few items at GBP 6.65 each they are saying, ‘I think I could manage without that this month’. It’s a disgrace it should be happening.
“This kind of thing is happening all over Scotland. Even someone with a mortgage may go to their GP with a bad chest infection and be faced with a prescription list for three items and decide to go without.”
Fiona, 44, from Edinburgh, who does not want to give her full name in case it affects her job, was diagnosed with MS nine years ago. She described how she rations her prescribed drugs.
She should be on three beta interferon injections each week, but when she is short of money for her quarterly certificate of just over GBP 30, she has deliberately left off items such as alendronic acid, which is used to build up calcium levels, and anti- depressants, which sufferers are prescribed for tiredness.
“There were days when I just felt terrible and that made me want to make a fuss to see what help I could get with the cost of it all. Other days I am just so knocked out I can’t find the energy at all. I hope this campaign embarrasses the Scottish Executive the way I was embarrassed trying to get my prescriptions for free.”
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