patients in England got medicines free. Prime Minister Gordon Brown introduced an exemption for cancer patients in 2009, and promised free prescriptions for people with long-term conditions. The Prescription Charges Coalition, a campaigning organisation of which the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and numerous organisations of disabled people are members, launched a survey investigating the impact of prescription charges on people in England with long-term conditions in March 2017. It advocates free prescriptions for everyone with long-term conditions. In July 2017 they said a third of patients of working age had not collected a prescription because of cost. The Royal College of General Practitioners launched a campaign in May 2017 to scrap mental health prescription charges for students. Normal practice was to prescribe on a 28 day basis but in 2022 Community Pharmacy Wales asked GPs in Wales to extend repeat prescription intervals from 28 days to 56 days, to free up community pharmacists’ time. Exemptions Prescriptions in England are free for: children under 16, people 16–18 and in full-time education, people who get some means-tested benefits such as Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or the guaranteed credit part of Pension Credit and Universal Credit if their net earnings are £435 or less in the last month, or £935 or less if they get money for a child or who have a limited capability to work, people over 60, women who are pregnant or have had a baby in the previous 12 months and have a valid maternity exemption certificate (MatEx) people who have a certificate (HC2) entitling them to help under the NHS Low Income Scheme. An HC3 certificate gives some help but not exemption from charges. The prescription exemption forms were not initially updated to include the new Universal Credit, and patients were advised to tick the Income based Jobseeker's Allowance box. Universal Credit was finally included in January 2020, seven years after its introduction. In July 2022 the roll-out of the Department for Work and Pensions ‘Real Time Exemption Checking’ system meant eligible patients no longer needed to complete an exemption declaration, as more than 80% of community pharmacies in England can digitally check eligiblity. Medical exemptions Patients with any of these conditions who have a valid medical exemption certificate (MedEx) are entitled to free prescriptions, for all conditions, not merely the qualifying condition: epilepsy needing continuous therapy a permanent fistula diabetes mellitus hyperthyroidism