Kaylee fights NHS drugs fee

Jul 2 2008 by Chris Robinson, The Journal

HEART-SWAP woman Kaylee Davidson has an important question to ask the Health Secretary at NHS 60th celebrations today: “Why do I have to pay for the drugs that are keeping me alive?”

The 21-year-old made medical history at five months old when she became the first baby in the UK to survive a heart transplant.

But after giving up her choreography college course due to its physical demands, because she is no longer a student she is no longer exempt from charges to receive life-saving drugs.

Last night Kaylee, of Houghton-le- Spring, near Sunderland, said: “I am having to pay to stay alive and I think that is wrong. Having a transplant means that you take medication for the rest of your life, no matter what.

“Everyone thinks you are cured, that’s it. But without this, I wouldn’t be alive.

“But I don’t understand why you have to pay for it. I have to pay for my own medication and others don’t.”

Later today the keen sportswoman will join hundreds of special guests at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey, London, to celebrate the National Health Service’s 60th anniversary, attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Prince of Wales.

She plans to meet Health Secretary Alan Johnson to ask why she has to pay £102.50 a year for a prepay prescription certificate entitling her to lifesaving drugs to boost her immune system. Kaylee suffered from viral cardiomyopathy and became the first baby in the UK to survive a six-hour heart transplant at five months old at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, in October 1987.

She has had to take 12 tablets a day and will do so for the rest of her life.

But she has continued to lead a healthy life and is a familiar face at the national and international Transplant Games.

She picked up three medals last weekend, including gold for badminton doubles, at the European championships in Vichy, France, as well as training with Gateshead Harriers. She also works closely with transplant co-ordinators at the Freeman Hospital, raising awareness of organ donation.

Kaylee, a sales assistant with Marks & Spencer at the MetroCentre, said: “If you don’t ask, then you don’t get, do you? So I would like to see what can be done with it. I don’t see why I should be paying £100 a year to pay for my lifesaving drugs which I need. Without them I wouldn’t be here.

“That’s what I would like to say to him: why do I have to pay for my own prescription? And that frustrates me more than anything.

“I have recently just accepted what has happened to me, to be honest. I still find it difficult to come to terms with it. It still hasn’t clicked that I made medical history and I am quite moved.

“It is hard, but I would rather deal with it being hard than not being here at all.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The extensive exemption arrangements we have in place mean that in England 88% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge.

“And anyone may obtain all the prescriptions they need if they buy a prescription prepayment certificate, which works out at less than £2 per week.

“Prescription charges provide a valuable contribution to the NHS in England, estimated to be £430m for 2006-07. Abolishing them would significantly reduce the money available to deliver other health priorities.”