PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stephen Birch
TI  - Relationship between increasing prescription changes and consumption in groups not exempt from charges
DP  - 1986 Apr 01
TA  - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
PG  - 154--156
VI  - 36
IP  - 285
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/36/285/154.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/36/285/154.full
SO  - J R Coll Gen Pract1986 Apr 01; 36
AB  - The further increases in National Health Service (NHS) patient charges introduced on 1 April 1985 represent a continuation of the Government's policy of requiring all except priority groups to pay an increasing proportion of the cost of their own treatment. Reductions in the use of the services on which charges are imposed would be incompatible with the stated objectives of the NHS. An analysis of the published data on NHS prescription dispensation shows that this policy has been associated with a considerable reduction in the per capita consumption of prescribed drugs in non-priority groups.