EU: Healthcare

Baroness Masham of Ilton Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, I live in a rural area where patients with serious conditions are now treated many miles away. The local population has become reliant on the voluntary air ambulance. This is the most popular charity in the north. It can be a life-or-death situation. The lifeboats that also save lives and do an equally important voluntary job do not have to pay VAT on fuel, but the ambulances do. A Question was therefore tabled asking whether air ambulances could have equal exemption from VAT. The noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, answered:

“EU law provides a specific exemption from VAT for the supply of certain equipment and services used for sea rescue. There is no equivalent provision for air ambulance rescue services”.—[Official Report, 16/6/11; col. WA 202.]

Is it not time that the EU helped all charities that save lives throughout the EU and allowed VAT exemption on fuel?

I ask the Minister, is there a problem of medication being sold to EU countries for a better price than in the UK? Are we running short of some drugs in some areas? I declare an interest: I have used CoAprovel for some time. My surgery in north Yorkshire can no longer obtain it, and I therefore take the prescription to London, where the drug is still available. The UK should maintain adequate supplies of medication so that patients are never left in a situation where they must wait for their treatment. I hope that safeguards will be put in place.