to wonder why people in England have to pay for prescriptions

[AtYourCervix]

and in Scotland and Wales they are free?

How the fuck can that happen?

Unfair as hell! And the Scots will say they contribute loads in oil revenue but they also get free university education and nursing homes. I wish someone would take this to court as being unfair, discriminatory, and against my human rights ...LOL!

And as of today they have gone up again.... Even more to pay!

So unfair...and yet they still benefit from our taxes

i just don't get it. have wales and scotland become separate states without me noticing?

In fact they are just discussing this issue on daybreak..

I live in Scotland and I think it's extremely unfair. The rules should be the same for everyone.

I don't know enough... do they pay higher taxes? Do we get for free stuff they have to pay for? Is the benefits system the same?

I am outraged.

Yes the benefits system is the same. I have noticed though, that our 3 year olds get funded quicker than in England. For example, my DS will be funded after teh Easter holidays, as he turns 3 next week. My friend in England, whose DS is also 3 next week, wont be funded til after September. No idea why!

and universities. extraordinary. who do i complain to. there must be some campaign for equality or something.

It because NHS is devolved issue to Scottish Gov and Scottish Gov have different priorities to Westminster. Atyourcervix - Scottish Parliament was set up in 1998 I think?

Atyourcervix - you could always try voting for MPs who believe in an NHS instead of tories who seem to be set on destroying it? It worked for us.

Northern Ireland doesn't pay either. Just for the record.

still.

is it not still a 'National' health service? Or if not should it be renamed 'Scottish/Welsh/English/NI' health service. Do these different countries NHS have completely separate budgets/rules etc? if not why not?

It's farcical. It just means that the English tax payer subsidises the Scots and Welsh. You cant have taxes levied nationally, but spending determined at country level. Any idiot should have been able to work that out....but apparently not

My opinion is that we should have stayed as we were (all goverened from Westminster...or brussels if I'm being really cynical) or gone for full devolution/ a break up of the Union.

Atyourcervix There are separate health services. In Scotland we have NHS Scotland which seems to be run on a completely different basis. We have health boards rather than PCTs. One of my friends recently started nursing in England after having been in Scotland and was surprised at the number of differences. Budgets, rules and targets are all set by the individual governments, so generally are different.

yes they have separate budgets

for the NHS I mean, not overall

(The way to fix it would be to get rid of Westminster and give England it's own parliament, and to give Scotland/Wales full fiscal autonomy...)

I live in Wales and we get free prescriptions. I think it's outrageous that England has to pay. And ginmakesitallok- we DIDN't vote the Tories in- they got in by the skin of their teeth. Those who did vote Tory were told the NHS would be well off on their hands. Not the first time voters have been lied to- don't blame the voters.

I too get annoyed that Scotland has so many more priveleges than the rest of the country. No offence to the Scots, but somehting's very wrong here if they are more priveleged than the rest of the country because of- what was it? oil tax or something?

and health budgets for those living in Scotland and Wales are several thousand more per person than those living in England...I believe.

and how do i not know any of this? i work for the bloody NHS and am clueless. i suppose that's how stuff like this happens.

the answer to that one is - I am too busy working, rearing children and just getting on with life to think about other stuff most of the time.

The amounts spent per capita is far far higher in Scotland then in England. Now some of it makes sense with it costing more to administer to really rural places of which Scotland have more. I wish I could find the information I was reading because it worked how how much the difference was even catering for those kind of differences

The thing is, the higher spend per person in Scotland and Wales is because of geography - longer distances, smaller healthcare facilities, they cost more

So this free prescription money means that other parts of the NHS are losing out, free prescriptions that aren't blooming needed - I don't want free prescriptions, but no-one asked me if that's how I wanted the health budget spent and the SNP didn't even blooming win the last election, yet they get to decide to waste money on stupid stunts like that