Norman Lamb                               Image:Flickr NHS Confederation

Norman Lamb the Health Minister has stated that the standard costs for a prescription are set to rise, however the rise is nothing to worry about for most of our readers as it is only going up by 20 pence.  People who pre-pay for 3 months or a year can save money as these are to be frozen at their current prices for another two years. If you are 60 years or over you will get free prescriptions anyway so this shouldn’t adversely affect many of our stairlift users.

The Prescription Prepayment Certificates cover you for all your prescribed medication, for a set period, so if you have more than a few medications, then it is going to be cheaper overall for you.  According to the NHS the current charge for a single prescription is £7.85, whereas a three-month one will be £29.10.  An annual prepayment certificate can be bought over 10 months by direct debit and is £104.00 in total.

We don’t know how this is going to help put more money into the NHS, as the majority of prescriptions (90% according to the article) are provided free.  To read more about it see the Congleton Guardian article about it here.