Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

The Sunday Post View: Drug price rises are a bitter pill for patients to swallow

Post Thumbnail

THE revelation that NHS patients in Scotland are being forced to turn to the internet to buy drugs is deeply worrying.

It is concerning on two fronts. The first is that patients leave themselves at risk of buying counterfeit drugs when they go online.

The second is the fact they have been left in this position in the first place by drug companies hiking prices.

Those increases have left some health boards no longer able to offer types of drugs that may be a lifeline to some people.

We all understand that drug companies need to charge for their products.

We all know that companies need revenue to reinvest in research to ensure the drugs of the future are created.

However, those corporations routinely report multi-billion-pound profits each year.

Doctors fear patients are risking their health by buying medicine online after NHS cuts prescription drugs

Not a few hundred thousand pounds or even a few million – but multi-billion pound profits.

The rises in prices are also not inconsiderable.

How can anyone justify an increase in price from £14 to £619?

Once again, it is ordinary people who suffer the cost of such rises.

They cannot help having lifelong conditions such as epilepsy or an underactive thyroid.

They don’t want to be reliant on taking tablets each and every day of their life.

But they have to. Surely, Governments cannot allow themselves, their health boards and people to be held to ransom in such an awful and unfair way.

But until a resolution can be found it is patients who will continue to suffer, either by paying for their medication or by being offered cheaper, and possibly less effective, drugs than they were previously supplied.