Ending a tax on ill-health

The Scottish Government has taken great strides since 2007 towards bringing an end to policies that seek to tax ill-health. Hospital car parking charges have been abolished at all NHS hospitals, except at the three hospitals that were built under PFI schemes and have contracts for car parking services that would be hugely expensive to buy out. The cost of visiting hospital, whether for patients or relatives, could be prohibitively expensive before this step was taken and ran counter to the principle of having an NHS that is free at the point of delivery.

In addition to abolishing these parking charges, we have also seen year on year reductions of prescription charges with the latest reduction recently having been placed before the Scottish Parliament for approval. This move will reduce prescription charges from £4 to £3, reduce four month pre-payment certificates from £13 to £10 and reduce twelve month certificates from £38 to £28.

This reduction is the final step before the planned abolition of prescription charges is delivered next year, as was promised in our election manifesto. The cost for many patients, particularly those with chronic conditions that require medication throughout a patient’s lifetime, is one that can be extremely challenging for them to meet and one that does not sit well with the principles behind the National Health Service.

Ill-health or injury is something that is not a choice, but rather a circumstance that is beyond an individual’s control. It cannot be right to then financially penalise people who find themselves in these circumstances if we wish to remain true to the values of the NHS.

There is no fundamental difference between believing that hospital treatment should be free at the point of need and believing that prescription drugs also should be. This is a core part of the universal health care which the NHS provides and I am proud to be part of a Government that is reaffirming those principles.

Communities pulling together

There are few people in Banff & Buchan that have not been affected by the current winter conditions, the worst we have seen in thirty years. With schools having closed, houses snowed in and further bad weather forecast, it is a difficult time for many people. Yet conditions like these are also a time when communities pull together and look out for their more vulnerable members.

For elderly people in particular, the cold weather and ice underfoot makes this time of year extremely difficult and it is a time when they value the help and assistance of their neighbours more than ever. Whether it is clearing an elderly neighbour’s path or something as simple as making sure that their heating is on or that pre-payment cards are topped up, it is actions like these that make our communities places we can be proud to live in.

Keeping warm in these low temperatures is vital and there is help available for elderly and vulnerable people in particular to save money on their heating and to make their homes warmer. A local advisor from the Energy Savings Trust can be contacted on 0800 512 012 who will be able to advise you on what assistance is available to you through the Energy Assistance Package, from advice on keeping your bills low to making funds available for installing a new boiler or insulation depending on your circumstances.

It is a free service which anyone can contact to receive advice from and I thoroughly encourage people to use it if they have not done so already.