Anyone else agree??
Free prescriptions for people with heart conditions.
Heart disease affects 2.3 million people in the uk and is one of the biggest killers, yet heart patients still have to pay for medication. Persciptions should be free for all heart patients.
Since many of us are over sixty (and don't pay anyway) that probably reduces the numbers drastically.
If you accept the premise above then every other condition will start their own petition and defeat the whole purpose of the NHS. Nice idea but a non starter I fear.
Was just browsing through and saw it on there.. They do have a point though, I have to pay something like £20 a month to top up my meds 
Do you have an annual discount card? Or have they stopped them? I know I did. Also for a while found that when Sam was at home bringing up the boys with only my salary to live on we were "so poor" we got free prescription and dental treatment anyway.
No, Well not that I've heard anyway? I think they still do a pre-paid card, were you pay so many hundred pounds for a year's worth of prescriptions?
That must be what I was thinking of. It was about fifteen years ago!
I pay £10.20p a month not a lot to support the NHS and be a less burden on the system.
SVTsophie! I have a pre payment medication card, I pay a monthly direct debit of £10:80 for, which for me is well worth it as for at one point I was paying nearly £100.00 a month which is ridiculous, I have often thought some medications, especially ones that are long term there should be a reduced fee, but it's peace of mind now knowing I can get all of my heart meds and blood thinners amongst a whole bunch of other things for a small payment and you can have as many prescriptions you need for that, but I will still check if there are cheaper alternatives over the counter as sometimes I'm gob smacked at the standard prescription charge over a item that can be bought for a few pounds or less..... You can also buy this annually as Bob said but it's having the money to pay up front... 😊
Living in Scotland where there is universal free prescriptions helps me a lot. Its disappointing our southern brothers and sisters don't get the same help.
Can be extortionate I think, I am able to get them free because of thyroid problems ,otherwise I would need to pay.
Wendi
How's this for weird logic? When I was first put on Amiodarone plus a diuretic plus aspirin I had to pay for the prescriptions. Eventually the Amiodarone messed up my thyroid. I needed thyroid medication which qualified for a free prescription. All of my medications then became free as well. I am on a different set of medications now although I still need the thyroid medication. So the prescriptions are all free.
No - don't agree.
Why just heart conditions - so many other chronic conditions that to single out heart conditions would be most unfair.
Here in Wales all prescriptions are free.... Should be able to do that throughout the UK
I get mine free as over 60 but signed anyway. Lots of conditions get free prescriptions why not heart conditions. I suffered all my life and had to pay for many different medications.
Agree with several others. Why single out heart problems, when a lot of us are over 60 anyway? And there is the option of a prepayment card as well.
I do agree that it shouldn't just be heart conditions, but whoever wrote the petition obviously feels strongly about it and it may be okay for people over 60 but there are a lot of us under that age, me being 23 and sometimes it's not easy coming up with £104 for a prepayment card for the year. So I do see both sides of the argument.
I can see that is hard but that is why there is the option of prepayment, I saved lots on my asthma treatment that way. Have you tried to find out if you are eligible for free meds on income grounds?
See asthma treatment should 100% be free, I don't know how they even decide what's free and what's not. Doesn't make sense! And no, I didn't even know that was an option either?
Your pharmacist should be able to point you in the right direction, if you need help to fill in the application for free prescriptions and dental care the Citizen's Advice Bureau is the place to go, though you do need a very low income to qualify (I know!)
Some things do seem strange, my friend has to pay for anti rejection drugs after a kidney transplant, but at the same time I got free hearing aids and an endless supply of free very expensive batteries
I think that's absurd
You or someone else will still pay by taxation.
I still pay my taxes 
So are you paying twice or just reducing your prescription cost???
I just pay my taxes and my prescription fees each month?
As soon as you make things free, people start over-asking for drugs and the NHS goes bankrupt.
So how does Wales and Scotland cope? (General question, I'm not very clued up )
The Barnett formula gives Scotland more per resident than in England. The Welsh NHS is bankrupt and has had numerous problems over the past few years.
Barnett doesn't have anything to do with free prescriptions Mike, government stats have shown its more expensive to administer a means tested system than a universal one. Also the Scottish health budget is proportionally linked to the English one so any cuts made south of the border impact up here as well. It's not part of the block grant per se. Any decision to charge for prescriptions is an ideological one as the entire uk could afford this fiscally.
I'm afraid it does. The Barnett formula gives the Scottish government spare cash it can use for whatever it chooses, and it decided to use it for free prescriptions.
The rest of the NHS is as you say linked pro-rata, but the free prescriptions are outside of this.
And no the UK cannot afford this - in case you hadn't noticed the UK is in huge debt which needs clearing.
I'm not going to get into a funding argument with you but it's a wee bit more complicated than Westminster giving Scotland some " spare cash" lol the govs own figures back the affordability of free prescriptions on a uk wide basis. The question shouldn't be why is Scotland doing this but why isn't England.
Because the figures do not back up free prescriptions. Indeed the Welsh may have to stop theirs shortly as they are short of 'free cash' as you put it. The UK is in huge debt and fixing this has to be the priority so England most definitely does not have the money for free prescriptions. An annual card is about £100 and this is a price everyone should be prepared to pay.
It's an old article but the sense is still the same ..... theguardian.com/society/201...
The care assistant will almost definitely be on income support and so will get free prescriptions anyway The tyre fitter probably wouldn't unless he was married with children, but at his income he should be able to pay the fee for a pre-payment card as he will need these prescriptions regularly.
An article showing that free prescriptions in Wales have caused huge waste. I see no reason to believe this isn;t the same in Scotland, and would be in England if implemented here.
clickonwales.org/2015/01/fr...
Well we could go on like this all day, suffice to say I happen to agree with universal free prescriptions, you don't. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it as I get my prescriptions having only been taxed once for them and don't have to pay for them again at the counter, I just wish my English cousins were in the same situation.
I agree, but you might care to read this showing just how much the NHS is overbudget and how much it needs to save which will affect us all.
bbc.co.uk/news/health-35481849
But that's down to the lack of care available in the community, hence patients that require home care can't be discharged?
That was part of the problem, but the NHS needs to make $22bn in savings and even solving the care problem would release only 4% of this overhang.
Just seen this too bbc.co.uk/news/health-35494660
I was 11 when the NHS started, doctors surgeries suddenly had huge queues and everyone was getting new teeth and glasses and of course prescriptions were free. If you think hospitals outpatient departments are busy now you should have seen them then. Basically everyone had the same time and you just waited until you were seen.
At your GP you just went along and waited to be seen often standing in a cold draughty hall for two hours or more
I am 57 and took early severance from work, don't claim any form of benefits so pay for my medication. I have an 'annual discount card'. If I didn't have one it would cost me around £50 per month for blood pressure and AF medications . Having said all that, according to NICE guidelines the cost to the NHS of 60 Apixaban (a month's supply) in 2012 was £102.90.
Thank goodness for the NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate which currently costs £104 per annum ... God forbid the Chancellor casts his beady eye in its direction.
So long as the Certificate option exists I think it would be churlish to sign the petition.
Having said that I don't see why 'long term' medication needs to be re-prescribed in monthly doses ... my wife has just received 3 months of HRT treatment which, because it is contained within one pack, need only be paid for once every 3 months.
Apixaban is very cheap there in the UK. A prescription of (60) 5-mg tablets here in the US costs $400. I don't know how many pounds that is, but it's a lot more than 103. Total annual cost = $4,800. Of that, on my insurance I would pay $600 ($50/month). And folks there expect all heart drugs to be free? I'm tempted to say something about being spoiled.
As for all heart meds being free, well, I have a curmudgeonly attitude about that. I believe that people who eat too much and develop obesity-related diabetes, or a heart condition due to smoking, or other such self-induced ailments, should pay for their own care - all of it. I'm not comfortable picking up the cost to pay for someone whose problems resulted from a series of bad decisions and poor self-discipline.
Now I'll grab my coat and follow theoldbuzzard down to the pub.
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