Prescription charges further reduced by £1

PRESCRIPTION charges have been reduced in the final cut before they are abolished altogether in Scotland.

The new charges will see a single prescription charge fall by 1 to 3.

A four-month prescription pre-payment certificate (PPC) falls by 3 to 10, while a 12-month PPC is now 28, down 10.

Public health minister Shona Robison said: "

Removing the prescription charge will ensure that cost is not a barrier to those needing to take the medication prescribed to them.

"A year-on-year increase in prescription pre-payment certificate sales prove that this policy is helping even more patients, particularly those with long-term conditions and others who require the greatest number of prescription items."

The abolition of prescription charges was a key manifesto pledge of the SNP going into the 2007 election.

But Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said Scotland would now be the only part of the UK where cancer patients had to pay for prescriptions.

Ms Baillie said: "It is unacceptable that patients here suffering from cancer have to pay for prescriptions when they are free in every other part of the UK."