NHS medicine will be labelled with prices
A price tag is to be put on medicines in the UK under a plan to cut waste in the National Health Service, along with a stamp reading “Funded by the UK taxpayer”.
All pharmaceuticals over £20 will have an “indicative cost” on the packaging, once the scheme is rolled out next year, as part of an effort to reduce the £300m bill for “wasted” medication, which is prescribed but not used.
In a speech to the Local Government Association in Harrogate, Hunt said "this will not just reduce waste by reminding people of the cost of medicine, but also improve patient care by boosting adherence to drug regimes."
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Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said it is vital that patients understand there is “no such thing as a free health service”, as he called for a new social contract between the NHS and the public.
Everything we are proud of in the NHS is funded by taxpayers, and every penny we waste costs patients more through higher taxes or reduced services.
We spend £300m every year on wasted medicines. People who use our services need to know that in the end they pay the price for this waste. So we intend to publish the indicative medicine costs to the NHS on the packs of all medicines costing more than £20, which will also be marked ‘funded by the UK taxpayer’.
Initiatives such as these aim to increase transparency, and fit into a government push of increasing awareness of costs and choices involved in public spending.
Hunt says, while integration of health and social care is vital to delivering high standards of health care, personal responsibility needs to sit alongside system accountability.
By the end of this Parliament we will have a million more over 70s, one third of them living alone. Yes the health and social care system must do a much better job of looking after them. But so too must all of us as citizens as well.