Pharmaceutical assistants have brought a High Court challenge to proposed new rules restricting the amountof time they can cover for a temporarily absent pharmacist to one hour per day.

Pharmaceutical assistants have brought a High Court challenge to proposed new rules restricting the amount of time they can cover for a temporarily absent pharmacist to one hour per day.

Doctors have six months to change how they prescribe anxiety and sleeping medicine to avoid disciplinary action by the Medical Council.

They say changes to their pathway to qualification will leave them €25,000 worse off over the course of their degree in comparison with their predecessors.

This story has been subject to the following update:

A vet has admitted to operating a system of "madness" supplying animal medications without prescription at three pharmacies he owns in Cork.

The country’s health products’ watchdog has said food intolerance tests are clinically invalid and nobody should act on the results of the tests without expert advice from a medical expert.

Irish people make 2m visits per month to a pharmacy.

Two pharmacists faced claims at a fitness to practice inquiry relating to the supply of a double dose of a powerful drug to a young man who was a minor at the time.

A pharmacist will have his work closely monitored for the next 12 months after being censured by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland over his poor professional performance.

Almost half of the pharmacies visited by a mystery shopper wrongly sold a popular over-the-counter stomach remedy in breach of warnings that they are dangerous for people with heart conditions.

Websites selling over-the-counter medicines in Ireland now have to display an EU logo to show that the drugs are safe and effective.

Senior health service officials are examining ways to make potentially life-saving adrenaline shot epi-pens more widely available after the tragic death of a 14-year-old girl from a nut allergy last Christmas.

The Irish Cancer Society says it cannot recommend electronic cigarettes as an alternative to tobacco until they are regulated in Ireland.

Two thirds of parents give over-the-counter pain relief medicines to their children incorrectly — with up to a third of parents using pain relief to sedate misbehaving children.

Custom officers have for the first time seized the highly addictive drug methamphetamine after an attempt to traffic it out of the country.

People have been urged to make sure they are not getting ripped off by pharmacists after a survey revealed huge variations in medicine prices.

The Irish Patients Association is calling on the Minister for Health James Reilly contact all nursing home regulatory bodies to see if anything can be learned from a report on the privately run Mulross Nursing Home.

A pharmacist who repeat-edly dispensed powerful drugs to customers without prescription was the first to be found guilty of professional misconduct and placed under restricted practice by the watchdog for the profession.

The role of the main street pharmacy is broadening, with pharmacists now administering flu vaccinations, supplying the morning-after pill, and providing consultation rooms for medical checks.

Your article (Nov 1) refers to e-cigarettes as “harmless”.

Pharmacists are being warned to be on the alert for people buying multiple packs of certain over-the-counter drugs which are being used to manufacture crystal meth, a highly-addictive street drug.

HEALTH Minister James Reilly has told pharmacists there must be no repeat of the systems failure that resulted in over 500 people getting the wrong flu jab.

THE chairman of the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) was paid almost €50,000 to lead the six-person ethics board last year.

IRELAND’S record in combating drug trafficking and involving communities in drug education and treatment programmes has been praised by a UN body.

A PHARMACIST was brought before a fitness to practise inquiry after his pharmacy sold a cough medicine that was two years out of date.

IRELAND is to host a world pharmaceutical congress in 2013, worth as much as €10 million to the national economy.

YOU can’t have failed to notice it.

Pharmacists could be struck off or prosecuted if they don't comply with new guidelines on the sale of codeine.

Pharmacies are facing new guidelines to tackle the increasing abuse of codeine.

Pharmacists around Ireland should get the swine flu vaccine as soon as possible, the head of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI), the pharmacy regulator, has said today.

Health Minister Mary Harney today launched a new National Pharmacy Internship Programme which will introduce a Masters in Pharmacy in Ireland for the first time.

PRESSURE is growing on the Taoiseach to cut short his holidays and intervene in the pharmacists’ dispute before patients die, after Health Minister Mary Harney last night refused to appoint a mediator to end the escalating row.

SOME pharmacists still participating in the State’s drug schemes were warning patients that they could be waiting days for their medication as they were overwhelmed.

GARDAÍ will start patrolling the HSE’s temporary pharmacies from today amid allegations that protesting pharmacists were intimidating staff at the sites.

PHARMACISTS have accused the Health Service Executive of throwing up a smokescreen over a looming crisis in the supply of medicines under the State’s community schemes.

PATIENTS going blind while waiting for treatment; women in particular being left in pain while they wait for a hip replacement; those with inherited conditions unable to get the lung or liver transplant they need.

The pharmacy regulator has urged people to be more aware of the dangers of taking medicine and getting behind the wheel.

A CLEAR and simple warning system for drugs that can impair driving ability is to be developed by the State’s pharmacy regulator.

NEWS that almost 4,000 patients were treated by the same consultant on the National Treatment Purchase Fund as they were on the public health service has been described as typical of the health service “duplication and expense”.