Pressure mounts to extend drugs claim deadline

THE Government is under mounting pressure to extend the deadline for refunds under the Drug Payments Scheme following a Department of Health overcharging blunder.

With just three weeks left to claim, less than 3% of the estimated 175,000 people owed €18 million have applied for their money back.

Yesterday, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU), whose members have to provide patients with the documentation to back up their claim, said pharmacists were under huge pressure.

“It can take anything from 20 minutes up to an hour for each individual claim to be processed. Our members say it is a huge problem in their pharmacies. It is overly bureaucratic and confusing for the elderly. This is causing delays and keeping the number of refund applications down,” said IPU spokeswoman Olive Stephens.

The General Medical Services (Payments) Board has received 22,000 requests for refund application forms, but up to yesterday afternoon, just 4,500 completed claims had been received by the Department of Health.

Both the IPU and the Irish Patients Association (IPA) have requested that the department extend the September 30 deadline to apply, but a spokeswoman for the department said yesterday there was no plan to do so.

Ms Stephens said it was unfair that IPU members were expected to undo a mess of the department’s making.

“We would question why they can’t make direct payments to those affected as all those who benefit from the GMS scheme are registered on the department’s database.”

Fine Gael deputy health spokesperson Dan Neville yesterday backed the call to extend the deadline.