In message <[log in to unmask]> Dr Toby Lipman writes:
>
>It is crazy that diabetics, epileptics and patients with thyroid
>deficiency can get all their precriptions free, but asthmatics, patients
>with heart failure and hypertensives can't. For that matter, it is also
>crazy that many poor patients with children consult their GPs in a sort
>of ritualised way when their children have viral illnesses simply to get
>a (free) prescription for paracetamol.
It is even crazier that some GPs unofficially means-test these parents
to decide whether they should issue the free prescription, or
whether they should make the parents buy it OTC. As they do.
>This is awful - I am beginning to sound like a Tory or a New Labourite!
>
The issue of 'co-pays' is always going to be very hard to get a
consensus on, even among socialists. It was an Old Labour Government
who introduced prescription charges in the first place, causing
several ministers to resign.
--
Pete Mitchell
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