Please sign my petition

Everyone please sign my petition at

ipetitions.com/petition/Lon...

[Hidden]

i wish you well with that, but today I read in the HSJ that there is a call for free prescriptions to be scrapped.

[Hidden]

I am going to make sure it happens, also working to get other things to happen just need people to sign my petition

[Hidden]

Hi Sinead I have signed your petition and explained why I feel so strong about the free-prescription scheme. I have also refered some of my friend to the petition too and said to some of them that even though they do get free prescriptions beause thery are alreawdy on meds that are on the scheme already to sign it and state what conditions they feel should be included in the scheme

Hope you can get enough signatures to make the goverment stand up and pay attention

Alison

[Hidden]

Thanks alison, needs lots of support and signituares. The campaign is covering lots of things that affect people with long term conditions

[Hidden]

In terms of free prescriptions, I'm probably going to be unpopular with my views, but then this is a discussion forum. I should also say that I feel a bit of a hypocrite with these views as I get free prescriptions due to another health condition (and feel guilty about it), although prior to this I did pay and had a pre-payment certificate.

I think the issue is much more that some conditions get them free and others don't. This is where it is unfair. But I'm afraid I have to say that I see the only solution to this as being giving no-one free prescriptions on the basis of long-term health needs. Asthma is a good example of why this wouldn't work - where would you draw the lines? Do people only needing one blue inhaler a year get free prescriptions? What about those with variable conditions? Does 'free' apply just to asthma meds or to all of that individual's prescriptions? How are you going to define in the latter case what are 'asthma medications' - are anti-histamines for asthma as they stop allergy symptoms which may prevent asthma attacks? What about calcium supplements for those of us on longterm Pred ... or things like Omeprazole? It's not an asthma medication but we take it because of the side effects of a med used for asthma. Would it be fair if we got that free but someone else who needed it (longterm or short-term) for non-asthma related conditions had to pay for it?

We are very lucky to have a free at the point of use health service and we shouldn't forget this. If we were to be given free prescriptions, cuts would have to come in somewhere else that may be undesirable.

I do not understand the argument that these are medications needed to stay alive / have a decent quality of life and we shouldn't therefore have to pay for them, or that people are at risk because they cannot afford medication. If you are really on that low an income, you are entitled to free prescriptions anyway (been there myself, so I'm speaking from experience). If you can afford to pay, then is that really a huge amount to be spending - particularly as you can get pre-payment certificates that make the costs far more bearable, and these can be paid by direct debit so do not need to represent a huge initial outlay. This may seem a little flippant, but we need lots of things to keep us alive and have a decent quality of life - not least food and clothing - but we don't ask for these for free because we need them to keep us alive.

I hope no-one takes this as an attack on them, and we're all entitled to our opinions.

[Hidden]

Yes I get mine free too but still Want to help other people, is not fair some conditions get thiers free. My petition and campaign are to do with a lot more then just prescriptions