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Access to healthcare

Another of our priorities for this year is access to healthcare and in particular, prescription charges. The current system of exemptions through an HC1 form is costly, bureaucratic and acts as a deterrent to students accessing healthcare. In fact, it's likely that the administration costs related to the HC1 form are actually higher than the cost of the medicine! We consider it more effective to give the money in the form of direct student support, and we want Parliament to acknowledge this.

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Prescription charges were recently abolished in Wales and Scotland after successful campaigning by NUS Scotland and Wales. This year we’re lobbying the government to abolish prescriptions charges for students in the rest of the UK.

 
In addition, doctors’ surgeries and campus health centres throughout the country are under-resourced and failing to cope with the student population. Services are reduced or increasingly difficult to access. This year we’ll be equipping student unions with the resources and information they need to ensure their students have local, adequate, and inclusive healthcare provisions.


How you can get involved


• Sign up for our call to action emails (coming soon)
• If you or anyone you know has been affected by lack of access to healthcare, let us know by emailing sarah.wayman@nus.org.uk.