Pharmacy regulator criticises Government and HSE

IRELAND’S new pharmacy regulator has accused both the Government and Health Service Executive of dragging their heels in meeting patients’ needs.

President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Brendan Hayes, said there was a need for a shift in policy by both bodies.

The flexible and invaluable role played by pharmacists could go much further in preventing customers becoming patients, Mr Hayes declared at the society’s national pharmacy summit in Dublin yesterday.

The society now had a legal duty to develop the profession, said Mr Hayes, who announced that an expert group, called Pharmacy Ireland 2020, would be established to look at how pharmacy services could be expanded.

He believes the pharmacy sector could alleviate many bottlenecks in the health service. “The potential for Irish pharmacy in this regard is not being realised,” he said.

“No group of health care professionals is better placed to intervene on a day-to-day basis in chronic care than the pharmacy profession,” he said.

New collaborations that could be established between nurses, dieticians and other primary care professionals were now being examined by the society, he said.

“If it is necessary to revisit the established primary care models in order to meet these challenges, the pharmacy sector would be eager to get involved,” he said. Pharmacists could deal cost effectively with many patients concerns through health promotion and screening for certain chronic conditions, said Mr Hayes.

Services could include finger-prick testing for diabetes with referral to GPs when indicated and manage patients with stable long-term conditions.