Prescription Charges and Exemptions

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Conference
2005 National Disabled Members' Conference
Date
24 June 2005
Decision
Carried as Amended

Conference congratulates the Welsh Assembly in agreeing to eliminate the charges that the people of Wales pay for prescription charges. Already reduced to £4 per prescription item, and in the lifetime of the current Welsh Assembly there is commitment to having free prescriptions in Wales by the end of 2006.

Conference notes that there are many health conditions that are chronic yet those health conditions do not allow exemption from charges for dispensing surgical interventions or prescriptions.

Conference requests that the National Disabled Members’ Committee lobby through all internal and external organisations to ensure that aids such as wigs and surgical stockings are exempt from charges, as this is a disproportionate cost to disabled women, and that this equipment is readily available to suit all needs, skin tone and hair type being of paramount importance. We also ask that equipment from orthotists is free of charge and that repairs to shoes, boots and trainers from this service is also provided free of charge.

Conference also requires that the National Disabled Members’ Committee begin a campaign using the Welsh Assembly position to reduce and then eliminate the costs for prescription medicines across the United Kingdom.

National Disabled Members’ Conference also requires that the National Disabled Members’ Committee make representations to the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions to consider extending the numbers of reportable illness to include work-related psychiatric disorders, repetitive strain injury, or work-related upper limb disorders caused by work.