The cost of a Prescription Pre-payment Certificate (PPC) has also been lowered by 51 per cent, from £98.70 to £48 for a 12 month period.

Last year the SNP announced that it  intends to abolish prescription charges for all by April 2011.  

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, said the Scottish Government is committed to removing the barriers to ill health. 

"The National Health Service is based on the principle that health services should be free at the point of use, no matter what the patient's income is. 

"We believe that prescription charges are a tax on ill health and a barrier to good health for too many people.  

"The reduced charges will mean that everyone who pays for prescriptions will pay less from today, making a significant difference to literally hundreds of thousands of Scots.” 

The reduction in prescription charges is expected to be of most benefit to people with long term conditions, as an estimated 63 per cent of all paid-for prescriptions are for cancer and long-term conditions such as asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Psoriasis and heart disease. 

Public Health Minister Shona Robison said: 

"More and more of us are living with long-term conditions and with the right support and medication, patients can go on to enjoy a good quality of life.  

"However, the problem is that many people who are not exempt from charges simply cannot afford the right medication.  

"Today's move to substantially reduce the cost of PPCs is the simplest and most effective way of providing direction financial support to people with chronic conditions. 

"While PPCs will be redundant from April 2011, I take this opportunity to encourage all people who have chronic conditions and need to use regular medication to use PPCs until then." 

Audrey Birt, chair, Long Term Conditions Alliance, welcomed what she called the “beginning of the end of prescription charges for people with long term conditions.” 

She continued: “Paying for vital medication adds to the already significant financial burden of living with a long term condition.  This leads many, including those on relatively high incomes, to chose between the different medicines they need. 

“The phased reduction in charges, and in particular the immediate halving in cost of Prescription Pre-payment Certificates, will make a real difference to the lives of Scotland's two million people who live with long term conditions." 

However, Shadow Health Secretary Mary Scanlon said that while the Scottish Conservatives support the reduction in charges this year, they do not support the full abolition of prescription charges.

She said: "The Scottish Conservatives previously supported extending the list of conditions to be exempt from prescription charges in the understanding that there were anomalies such as free prescriptions for epilepsy and diabetes but not for asthma or Parkinson’s disease.   We also understand that drawing up a watertight list of chronic conditions is extremely difficult.

"However, given this background, we are sympathetic to the cut in the pre-payment certificate from £98 to £48, which we feel will lead to better health care and indeed better patient compliance and stop the ongoing arguments about what is and is not a chronic condition. “

However, she said given the competing priorities for NHS resources she has an issue with supporting free prescriptions for people who can afford to pay, adding that it still leaves many unanswered questions. In particular she points to the questions over the full effect of the Welsh experience of abolishing prescription charges, confusion over what is happening with the Minor Ailments system in Scotland, whether it will lead to increased drug use and wastage, and how much of GP’s time will be taken up prescribing for over the counter medicines.

For more information about changes to the cost of prescription charges speak to your Community Pharmacist or visit: www.infoscotland.com/prescriptions