The anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which doctors and public health departments prescribe against swine flu, may be completely free to everyone with a prescription from next week according to media reports.

The drug, which is distributed by chemists, is currently only free to those who have a prescription from local public health departments (GGD).
Those who have a prescription via the family doctor have to pay around €30.
At present Tamiflu is not covered in the basic health insurance package.
‘The number of cases of swine flu is rising so much now that the GGDs will no longer be able to cope. Then you have the strange situation in which someone treated by the GGD doesn’t have to pay but those referred to their doctor because of the GGD’s workload does have to pay,’ a spokesman for the dispensing chemists association KNMP told the AD newspaper.
He believes the health ministry will order the distribution of the five million doses of Tamiflu it has in stock next week, reports the paper.
Last week the number of confirmed cases in the Netherlands rose to over 500.