In Health & NHS news

Follow this topic

Bookmark

Record learning outcomes

More than three million patients in England and Wales received prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) exemptions in 2023-24, according to the NHS Business Services Authority.

The NHSBSA said without the certificates, which help people save money if they need four or more items in three months or 12 or more items in 12 months, patients would have spent £817 million in prescription charges.

The NHSBSA also said all those patients would have saved £451 million if they had bought a 12-month PPC.

Its data revealed 466,000 patients received hormone replacement therapy PPCs which were introduced in April 2023 and covers an unlimited number of prescriptions for eligible medication for 12 months.

The NHSBSA said those patients would have spent over £20 million in prescription charges without a HRT PPC. “Assuming each patient paid £19.30 for a HRT PPC, they saved an estimated £11.2 million,” it said.

However, despite the growing number of PPCs issued each year, patients continue to pay for 12 or more prescription items or three or more HRT PPC prescription items.

The NHSBSA found around 872,000 patients would have saved £35 million by purchasing a 12-month PPC and 286,000 patients would have saved about £8 million if they had purchased a 12-month HRT PPC.