DUP minister proposes bringing back prescription charges

The North's health minister Jim Well is proposing to reintroduce prescription charges in Northern Ireland to help pay for specialist medicines "for those who need them most".

The DUP Minister announced in the Northern Assembly on Tuesday that he is launching a 12-weeks consultation period seeking reaction to his plan to bring back prescription charges to help open up greater access to specialist drugs.

Unlike in the Republic, GP appointments are free in Northern Ireland. Up to 2010 patients had to pay for prescriptions. These were around £6 per prescription with that fee reduced to £3 in 2009. In 2010 the then Ulster Unionist Party Minister of Health abolished these charges completely.

Mr Wells in the Assembly put forward his arguments for reintroducing these fees without specifying what the charge per prescription would be. He said however they would be minimal.

He hopes to raise between £5 million and £10 million through prescription charges with the money raised designed to be put to a specialist drugs fund. This would be similar to the Cancer Drugs Fund that operates in England.

“In view of the current financial position, and the need to invest in services such as the provision of new specialist drugs, I believe that this may be an appropriate time to reconsider the provision of free prescriptions in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Wells.

The Minister said he was responding to “concerns raised by cancer patients and survivors, charities, the pharmaceutical industry and my colleagues in the Assembly that the existing process of providing access to new specialist medicines in Northern Ireland could be improved”.