Menopause Support founder Diane Danzebrink appeared on BBC Radio Five Live this morning ( 21 February) to give her view on the latest government announcement on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) which will cost the equivalent of two NHS prescription charges for an annual prepayment certificate.
Diane argues that while the price drop for patients is a good thing in principle, thousands of women are unable to get the prescriptions they need. And she urged Health Minister Maria Caulfield to “please stop rolling out this line” on HRT supplies that HRT is readily available.
She quoted examples of a number of community members who called as many as 15 local pharmacies in a bid to fill their prescriptions.
“I’m pretty fed up of hearing from the Department of Health that there is lots of HRT in stock…be more open about why we have these issues and what you’re doing to try to tackle them, because I have thousands of members of our support community who have emailed or tried to contact the Department of Health , and you just get this standard response which tells you what you already know.
“I think the lack of information is really frustrating, not just for patients but for doctors – and our pharmacists are on the front line of this, having to tell people they are sorry but they can’t give them what they need” she added.
A clip of Di’s conversation with R5 presenter Rick Edwards is here.