Prescription Charges

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 November 1997.

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Photo of Alan Milburn Alan Milburn Minister of State, Department of Health 12:00, 11 November 1997

The policy of the Health Department is that we are conducting a review, and the review will report in due course. I would take the hon. Gentleman's concerns more seriously and they would be more convincing if the Conservatives, when they were in power, had not increased prescription charges fourfold in real terms. The outcome of the comprehensive spending review will be judged by one yardstick: the Government's commitment to the historic principle of the NHS that services should be available according to need and need alone.