<P> In the English NHS charges are made for prescription drugs, and the majority of adults (though not a majority of patients) are required to pay them . Charges were abolished in NHS Wales in 2007, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland in 2010 and by NHS Scotland in 2011 . In 2010 / 11, in England, £ 450m was raised through prescription charges, some 0.5% of the total NHS budget . </P> <P> When the National Health Service was established in 1948 all prescriptions were free . The power to make a charge was introduced in the NHS Amendment Act 1949, and proposals for charges were a factor in the resignation of Aneurin Bevan from the Labour Government in 1951 . Charges were introduced in 1952, by the Conservative government, at a rate of one shilling per prescription . </P>

Which parts of the uk have prescription charges