KEEP TAKING THE TABLETS...

I see that from yesterday the charges for NHS prescriptions are going up again, this time to £9.35 per item.  It might `only` be an increase of 20p but it means that the charge is approaching the £10 mark, at which point I suspect there will be something approaching a revolution.   Not only at the charge itself but also the fact that it is only in England that the prescription charges apply anyway.

If you live in Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland they`re free.  And in Scotland, of course, other things are free too - tuition fees, dentistry charges, free care for the elderly, free hospital parking as well as prescription charges.  And all because of the Barnett Formula, by which, for example - for every extra £100 spent on, say, health services per person in England, the same amount goes to Scotland as well as some parts of the other devolved administrations within the UK.   But that money which finds its way across the border does not have to be spent on the same services as in England, so in Scotland they can spend it on what they like.   And they do.

So perhaps unsurprising that there is growing discontent in England with all of this and the latest rise in the prescription charge has again raised the whole issue, arguably compounded by the antics of Nicola Sturgeon who, in advance of the upcoming elections north of the border, has pledged to increase free travel to all under the age of 22 and is raising nurses pay in Scotland by 4%.

Now I don`t have to pay the prescription charge, being `of a certain age` but I think I might be a bit miffed if I had to.  Mind you, it wasn`t long ago I thought I didn`t have to pay for the TV license either but now I do have to, thanks to the deadly duo of the BBC and HM Gov. cocking things up between them. So I just wonder how long it will be before I have to pay the English prescription charge as well.

In the meantime, I`ll keep taking the tablets. (Or move to Scotland?)