THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has been accused of bullying pharmacists into accepting uneconomic and unworkable contracts.

PHARMACISTS fear they will go out of business if the Health Service Executive presses ahead in cutting the wholesale mark-up on drugs dispensed under the medical card scheme next month.

A NUMBER of pharmacists who have withdrawn from the methadone treatment scheme were yesterday ordered to appear before a Competition Authority inquiry into a possible breach of competition law.

ONE-IN-FOUR people over the age of 50 arrive in accident and emergency departments with insufficient knowledge of their medical condition and medication, an A&E consultant warned yesterday.

PHARMACISTS in Cork are to cease dispensing drugs to medical card holders after December 1.

IRELAND tops the European rankings for complaints of ailments, new research reveals.

PHARMACIES and drugs companies have claimed a decision by the Health Service Executive to slash the mark-up paid for medicines will put many community pharmacists out of business.

ONE-in-three people are still too embarrassed to discuss issues like sexual health and incontinence, despite the dangers posed to their health, research has revealed.

THE public is being forced to pay unnecessarily high sums for important medi-cines that should be made available over the counter, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has claimed.

Elderly people on medication risk accidental overdose because they may not know their correct dosage, it was warned today.

MEDICAL card patients around the country could be left unable to pick up their medication from local pharmacies if a dispute between the HSE and pharmacists isn’t resolved in the next 10 days.

MILLIONS of euro of taxpayers’ money could be saved if pharmacists were allowed play a greater role in preventative care and the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has claimed.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) is seeking to get a greater role for its members in the area of patient care.

More than four out of five medical card holders want pharmacists to provide medicines for minor health problems without a prescription, it emerged today.

PHARMACISTS are calling for the morning-after pill to be made available over-the-counter as it is in Britain Research published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology shows the potential for a 10% reduction in teenage pregnancies with the introduction of legislation liberalising emergency contraception availability.

The state’s bill for medicines is to be cut by €300m thanks to an agreement between the Health Services Executive and pharmacists, it was revealed today.

Pharmacists today demanded medical card holders be allowed to buy over-the-counter medicines straight from the chemist rather than having to see a doctor first.

Pharmacists have called on the Health Service Executive to ensure that 6,000 opiate users in Ireland are put on their recovery programme.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Union has rejected claims made in a Sunday newspaper today that pharmacists in Ireland earned one billion euros from the Government last year for dispensing medicines.