1st April 2014 Increase in Prescription Charges

mgyr308You may have heard in the press lately some discussion around prescription charges, as they are set to rise to a breathtaking £8.05 per item from 1st April (going up to £8.20 next year). Many of us regularly take several medicines due to our lupus and related conditions. As we are all aware lupus (despite being a lifelong chronic condition) does not automatically qualify for free prescriptions, as other conditions like thyroid problems do. To put this in perspective I have 5 medicines on prescription that I take every day indefinitely and this will now cost me a whopping £483 a year (unless I buy a £104/year NHS prepayment card  upfront which not everyone can afford to do).

St Thomas Lupus Trust is part of the Prescription Charges Coalition Group They are actively fighting to get everyone with long term health conditions to qualify for free prescriptions. Please follow this link to a petition on the British Heart Foundation website asking the government to end unfair prescription charging for those with long term conditions and add your name to it.

You can listen to the Radio 4 “Inside Health 12/3/14” piece on iPlayer to hear a report on this latest increase (it’s the second item on the programme -about 11 minutes in ).

You can  click here for a link to Paying the Price, a report by the Prescription Charges Coalition and it’s where you can  e-mail your MP regarding prescription charges too. It’s extremely fast and does all the work for you, all you need is to type is your name and address.

March’s Coffee and Chat

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With spring starting to feel like its finally sprung, we had another great coffee and chat this month. Despite a few of us being away due to other previous commitments (which meant that there was no formal meeting this month), five of the group still met and had an enjoyable morning together.

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