The Herald
A prescription for change
Editorial Comment January 12 2006
To join up with Wales, or stay with England? That is the question confronting Scotland's political class on the thorny issue of prescription charges. Colin Fox, the Scottish Socialist Party leader, has promoted a bill to abolish these charges. These will be phased out by the Welsh Assembly in 2007. The Scottish Executive is against abolition on grounds of cost, £45.4m a year and rising, and that those who can afford the £6.50 fee for each subscription should continue to pay (pre-payment is cheaper). One route out of this political impasse would be for the Scottish Parliament to debate and vote on Mr Fox's bill.
Evening Times
LABOUR MSPs in Glasgow were today challenged to throw their weight behind abolishing prescription charges after the move was backed by Holyrood's health committee.
In a new report, the Parliament's influential health committee recommended the £6.50 charge should be ditched and replaced with free medicines.
SSP leader Colin Fox said scrapping prescription charges would be of particular benefit to people in Glasgow.
He issued this challenge: "Will Labour MSPs in Glasgow, the city with the highest levels of disability allowance and incapacity benefits in Britain, vote to deny their constituents free prescriptions?"
He urged them to follow their party colleagues in the Welsh Assembly who abolished prescription charges three years ago.
Mr Fox said: "The level of need in Glasgow and the west of Scotland means thousands of people are going without their prescription because they can't afford it."
He claimed 75,000 Scots were going without some or all of their medicines because they could not afford the £6.50 charges and an "overwhelming" proportion of them were in Glasgow.
