Ireland tops OECD drugs bill poll

IRELAND has the fastest growing medicines bill of all the 29 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Irish patients increased the amount they spend on drugs by 12.8% each year from 1998 to 2003, according to latest figures from the OECD.

Fine Gael has said these figures show the need to increase our usage of generic or non-branded drugs as they claim we are too reliant on expensive branded medicine.

Irish Pharmaceutical Union secretary general Seamus Feely agreed that more generic drugs could be used but said that our expenditure on drugs is still the third lowest in the EU.

“We pay about €185 per head, according to a recent report, compared to €695 per head in the US for instance so we are lagging behind. Also it should be noted newer drugs are now very expensive and that the Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) and the extension of medical cards to over 70s have all made drugs more available,” he said.

Irish patients also benefited from the largest increases in government health expenditure between 1998 and 2003, the OECD figures show. Total spending on the Irish health services increased by 11% from 1998 to 2003.

But we still rank seventh from the bottom of the league in terms of the amount we spend on our health services as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Ireland spends 7.3% of GDP on health compared to 7.7% in Britain and the North and 10.1% in France. Those who spend less include Poland, Mexico and Korea.

The authors of the report point out that any increased government spending on health services across the OECD countries is being gobbled up by the soaring drugs bill.

The study shows how 11% of the Irish health spend goes on drugs, compared to 12.9% in the US and 21.8% in Spain.

Fine Gael spokesman on health, Dr Liam Twomey, said he is not surprised at the growing drugs bill.

“We don’t have any real competition in the wholesale and drugs retail market as we are too reliant on expensive branded drugs ... We also as a nation have a very high usage of anti-biotics and painkillers,” he said.

“In terms of health expenditure, we may have made increases but that’s because we’re playing catch up. More money has been spent but we’re not seeing any improvements.”