NHS prescription cost to rise by 30p next month

PRESCRIPTION charges are set to rise by 30p from April.

The cost of a single prescription will increase from £9.35 to £9.65.

Charges were frozen at £9.35 per item last April to help ‘ease cost of living pressures’, the first freeze in 12 years. But the Department of Health and Social Care yesterday said it had applied an increase of 3.21 per cent.

The price of HRT for menopausal women has been hiked from £18.70 to £19.30 for a year’s supply before a scheme to reduce even starts.

Last month, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society revealed rising numbers of patients were failing to collect their medicine or asking pharmacists which ones they can ‘do without’ because they cannot afford the charges.

NHS prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some patients in England are also exempt from paying.