Pharmacy leaders and health charities have called on the government to abolish NHS prescription charges in England, branding the £9.90 fee a "cruel tax on illness" that is forcing patients to choose between their wellbeing and their finances.
Poll Shows Widespread Opposition to Charges
A new survey conducted by Savanta on behalf of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed that nearly four in five adults in England (79%) consider it "unfair" that patients in England must pay for their medicines, whereas prescription fees have been completely abolished in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The poll of 1,781 adults highlighted a growing healthcare crisis driven by cost-of-living pressures. One in ten (10%) respondents admitted they have gone without a prescription medicine in the last year because of the cost, while one in twelve (12%) reported delaying collecting their essential prescriptions for the same reason.
Pharmacists Report Patients Choosing Between Medicines
The NPA - representing roughly 6,000 community pharmacies - warned that pharmacists across England are increasingly being asked by patients with multiple prescribed medications to decide "which is the most important one to take". With the Chancellor preparing for the upcoming Budget, healthcare leaders are urging the government to align England with the rest of the UK and eliminate prescription fees entirely.
Olivier Picard, Chairman of the NPA, described the situation as a national scandal that undermines the foundational principles of the NHS: "No patient should ever see cost as being a barrier to accessing the medicines they need but this polling shows an alarming number do. It is a national scandal and deeply unfair that anyone could consider stopping vital medicines because of cost."
"This cruel tax on illness, where some patients are exempt but others are forced to pay simply because they have the wrong kind of illness, undermines the founding principles of the NHS," he added. "If the Chancellor wants to tackle the rising cost of living and health inequalities, he should bring England into line with the rest of the UK and scrap this unfair and complex prescription tax."
Health Organisations Join the Call
Dr. James Davies, Director of Research and Insights at Community Pharmacy England, echoed these sentiments, noting: "The Chancellor has an opportunity in this Budget to remove one of the most unfair costs facing patients. No one should be forced to choose between paying for essential medicines and making ends meet, yet these figures show that too many people are doing exactly that."
Major health organizations joined the call, emphasising that the current exemption list penalizes those living with long-term, life-altering conditions. CEO of Asthma and Lung UK, Sarah Sleet, pointed out that respiratory conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are absent from the exemption list, meaning patients are "left essentially paying for their right to breathe".
Prescription charges were abolished in Wales in 2007, Northern Ireland in 2010, and Scotland in 2011. England remains the only nation in the UK where patients are charged a standard £9.90 per item.
While certain groups in England - such as under-16s, full-time students aged 16–18, adults aged 60 and over, benefit recipients, and women seeking contraception - are exempt, millions still pay out of pocket.
Financial Impact and Government Response
In the 2025/26 period, an estimated 11.6 million patients paid prescription charges, raising approximately £732.8 million for the health service. Around 3.3 million people used Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPC) to cap costs, while approximately 730,000 women relied on HRT-specific PPCs.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Almost nine in 10 NHS prescriptions in England are currently supplied free of charge."
They added: "For those people who do pay for their prescriptions, we have frozen prescription charges for the last two years, keeping costs as low as possible for millions of patients. Every penny raised from prescription charges goes back into our NHS, to support the front-line care from which we all benefit."
