TY - JOUR T1 - Relationship between increasing prescription changes and consumption in groups not exempt from charges JF - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners JO - J R Coll Gen Pract SP - 154 LP - 156 VL - 36 IS - 285 AU - Stephen Birch Y1 - 1986/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/36/285/154.abstract N2 - 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. ER -