Letter: Back to basics
The introduction of prescription charges - at a rate of one shilling per prescription form - saw the resignations of ministers such as Aneurin Bevan (the "father of the NHS") and Harold Wilson because they saw a charge for drugs as a betrayal of the founding principles of the health service.
I would have thought that, compared to the huge amount of wealth accruing to the Exchequer from the Scottish sector of the North Sea, providing essential drugs free of change and, thereby reducing potential working days lost through sickness, would be a drop in the ocean. Or sea.
BARRY LEES
Denholm Street
Greenock