Prescription and Appliance Charges

Patients charges towards the cost of drugs and appliances issued on prescription forms presented for dispensing under the National Health Service are as follows:

£3.85 Per item on a Prescription Form

£7.70 Per item of Elastic Hosiery (an anklet, legging, knee-cap, below-knee or thigh stocking)

Exemptions 

National Health Service Prescriptions are free for the following classes of persons:

• Children under 16 years
• Full time students under 19 years
• Persons of state retirement age
• Persons in receipt of Income Support and their dependants
• Persons in receipt of Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
• Persons in receipt of Incapacity Benefit for a period in excess of 6 months
• Persons in receipt of Employed Persons Allowance
• Chronic sick, who have been in constant need of medical attention for 6 months or longer and who are not in substantial employment
• Persons suffering from the following conditions, irrespective of income or employment circumstances:
  • (i) permanent fistula (including caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy) requiring continuous surgical dressing or an appliance; 
  • (ii) the following disorders:
  • forms of hypoadrenalism (including Addison’s Disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential
  • Diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism
  • Diabetes mellitus except where treatment is by diet alone
  • Hypoparathyroidism
  • Myasthenia gravis
  • Myxoedema
  • (iii) epilepsy requiring continuous anti-convulsive therapy;
  • (iv) a continuing physical disability which prevents the patient from leaving his residence without the help of another person;
• War Service Disablement Pensioners; 
• Registered Blind Persons; 
• Women who are pregnant; 
• Women who have given birth within the previous 12 months. 

No prescription charge is payable for contraceptive appliances and substances prescribed for women under the Isle of Man Health Service.

Further information on prescription and appliance charges and exemptions is obtainable at the office of the: