Chemists keen to cut state medicine bill

PHARMACISTS say they are willing to help the Government reduce the cost of the state’s medicines bill.

Talks aimed at securing “significant savings” on the State’s medicine spend could be part of a wider discussion on a new pharmacy contract, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) said last night.

However, IPU president Liz Hoctor warned that the savings could only be achieved if the Government worked in partnership with the union and its members.

She warned against the Health Service Executive (HSE) going on solo runs and attempting to impose quick fixes without the agreement of pharmacists.

Ms Hoctor, who was speaking at the IPU president’s dinner in Dublin, said that it was now more than five years since pharmacists first sought a renegotiation of their contracts.

She pointed out that the HSE had set out a process for contract negotiations that was broadly acceptable to the union six months ago but that the matter had not been progressed since then.

The IPU has also called on the Government to include pharmacists in the forthcoming legislation designed to enable the Government to negotiate with a representative body like the Irish Medical Organisation that represents doctors.

“It is inconceivable that they would legislate to allow negotiations with one medical representative body and not another,” she said.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Mary Harney said she would welcome the willingness shown by pharmacists to help the Government reduce the State’s medicines bill.

He pointed out that a process had already been established by the Government to see how savings could be made on drugs prescribed by GPs under the medical card scheme.

A group chaired by Dr Michael Barry, a consultant clinical pharmacologist at the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, is to report back to Ms Harney by December 1 on ways of cutting the cost of pharmaceuticals as part of the review of the over-70s medical card scheme.

Ms Harney also indicated this week that some drugs could be removed from the scope of the medical card scheme as part of reforms that are under consideration.

She also signalled that some forms of medication could be excluded from the drug payment scheme, which reimburses private patients for the cost of drugs above a particular threshold.

Labour’s spokeswoman on health, Jan O’Sullivan, urged the minister to “come clean” on what medical items were being withdrawn from the medical card scheme.