Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
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here is the kicker, you see Anna is a complete b**ch, and she has also destroyed my Thyroid wilst we were still working on what the cause was. So I have to take thyroxine now. but this gives me an exemption to the prescription charge.
Now i have my exemption, the question i want to raise is why does its not just apply to Thyroxine and Epipen? I am, of course fully aware that it will cost me more to pay for any other prescription, (I have to take anti histimine each morning too) but it just strikes me as silly, thats its an all or nothing rule. Hell even my brother who takes heart tablet (beta blockers) cant get them free so pays a yearly charge
FWIW I do agree that free Thyroxine is a good a thing, and so would be free epipen. but that should not apply to anything else i ever need.
I suspect someone in the bureaucracy decided that if someone has a valid reason to need and can be trusted with an exemption on one drug, it was more trouble than it was worth not to just give them a general exemption.
At its initial inception the NHS had no prescription charge, but it lead to people taking the Micky and wanting things like cotton wool on prescription. This of course ended in the introduction of the prescription charge.
I think i will stick to my guns on it and continue to buy medicine that is available over the counter for around £2, rather than expect the taxpayer to fund it (which of course will be much more expensive to them). Its just an issue i figured was worth bringing up.