Pharmacy statistics on dispensing costs suggest that there is no such thing as free prescriptions

The total number of prescriptions dispensed rose to 43.1 million in the year ending at the beginning of April. The cost of them was £444 million, an inflation-busting increase of 5.4% on the year before.

Data from the General Pharmaceutical Service Statistics also shows that NI has the highest ingredient cost per person in the UK, at almost £230 per year compared to the lowest, England, at £161 per person. England is lowest in cost and is also the only part of the UK where prescriptions are not free.

A basic calculation shows that if Northern Ireland was able to shave its per person ingredient costs by £70, in line with England, it would save the Province a massive £150m a year, which could be spent on other urgent public services.

This is such a common feature of life in NI: we expect and spend more in multiple spheres of life, including in court damages payouts for personal injuries or indeed in free school meals (the income threshold for that perk in NI is far higher than in England, meaning that free meals cost many times more per person than in England).

London foots the bill for some public expenditures in NI, but other things cost us all in the pocket, such as car insurance premiums are pushed up in NI by the cost of damages.

And even if public spends are covered by Westminster it damages the fabric of the UK by stirring resentment in England — the wealthiest UK country — which funds services that the English don’t get. Such antagonism suits Scottish, Irish or Welsh nationalists but should alarm everyone else.

The arguments for free prescriptions in 2010 were in many respects strong. The old system was clumsy. Removing charges removes the admin cost of collecting fees. But free scrips create other problems, including a rise in usage.

Ending the policy makes no sense in a pandemic but there should be a debate about its merits when normality returns.

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