Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional support for women who face additional prescription costs due to (a) menorrhagia and (b) other menstrual issues caused by (i) miscarriage and (ii) other significant traumas.

There are no plans to review the support available to women facing these issues.

A maternity exemption certificate can be applied for as soon as a healthcare professional has confirmed that the patient is pregnant or has given birth, including still-birth, in the previous twelve months, and this provides exemption from prescription costs until 12 months after the due date. The certificate remains valid if the patient has a miscarriage. The certificate is automatically backdated one month from the date the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority.

If a patient is not entitled to the maternity exemption, they can purchase a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC), which allows them to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost. A three-monthly PPC, costing £32.05, or an annual PPC, costing £114.50, will save people money if they need four or more items in three months or 12 or more items in 12 months. To help spread the cost, people can pay for an annual PPC by ten monthly direct debits. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week.

Approximately 40% of the population are currently liable to pay the prescription charge though approximately 89% of the items dispensed in the community are dispensed free of charge.