The UK Government has announced bad news for NHS patients in England - but Wales is offering some of them a helping hand.
From April 1, prescriptions in England will cost an extra 20p, which will take the £8.80 price per item up to £9.
The change only applies to patients in England, as prescriptions are free in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Government has also revealed that the cost of items such as wigs and fabric supports will increase, as reported by the Manchester Evening News .
For example, full bespoke human hair wigs will cost an additional £6.05 each, with the new price at £282.
However, there is an option for some patients in England to receive free prescriptions, thanks to a cross-border protocol with Wales.
It says that anyone who lives near the border and has a GP in Wales is able to get prescriptions free of charge - as long as the prescription is dispensed by a pharmacy which is employed by NHS Wales .
The NHS says the cross-border agreement is in place to "help support patients who live on or near the England-Wales border to make sure they receive healthcare without confusion or delay".
When Wales introduced free prescriptions in 2007, it was the first UK nation to do so.
A reported £578.1m of funding was spent on prescriptions in 2017, according to statistics released by the Welsh Government .
Data also reveals that the number of items prescribed here has soared in the last few years, from almost 44 million in 2000 to more than 80 million in 2017, as reported by WalesOnline .
As a country, we also receive more items per head as a population than any other UK nation, which has been criticised by some.
A councillor in Anglesey proposed scrapping free prescriptions in 2018, saying it could help plug the gap left by austerity cuts.
Shaun Redmond, who represents Caergybi, urged decision-makers in Cardiff to reconsider their stance, claiming that paid prescriptions would reduce the effects of council cuts.
Others back free - or at least cheap - prescriptions, with evidence suggesting that high costs can have detrimental effects on health .
Lloyd Tingley, senior policy and campaigns adviser at Parkinson's UK and chairman of the Prescription Charges Coalition, said: "We already know that one in three people with long-term conditions do not collect all their essential medication due to cost, which inevitably leads to ill health."
These sentiments have been expressed by the Welsh Government itself, who claimed that it introduced free prescriptions in response to evidence that individuals with serious chronic conditions could not afford their medications.
A spokesman told WalesOnline: "Free prescriptions were introduced in Wales as a long-term investment to improve people's health.
"Since introducing our policy of free prescriptions in 2007, the growth in prescribing of over the counter medicines has been slower in Wales than in England, where the UK Government persist with a system of illogical and unfair prescription charges."
