BMA meeting: BMA representatives vote to end prescription charges in England

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2650

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Please see: BMA meeting: BMA representatives vote to end prescription charges in England

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Deborah Cohen

¹BMJ

The BMA has voted overwhelmingly to abolish prescription charges in England. A motion passed at the BMA’s annual conference in Liverpool urged the government to abolish prescription charges in England, as has happened in Wales and is happening in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Speaking for the motion, Shaukat Ali, a consultant from Darlington, said that prescription charges “defeat the fundamental principle of health care under the NHS: free at the point of delivery.”

He pointed out that when Clement Attlee introduced prescription charges in 1951, when the charge was …