Pharmacy advice prevents 4 million GP visits

FREE patient advice and services provided by pharmacists reduced GP visits by almost four million and unnecessary attendances at accident and emergency departments by more than 500,000 in 2007, a report claims.

The independent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU), the representative body for 1,850 pharmacists across the country, puts the cost of non-remunerated services provided at €460 million.

The report on pharmacy services was released at an IPU seminar in Dublin yesterday and is aimed at giving further weight to the union’s bid to protect their patient services and maintain a viable profession.

IPU president Liz Hoctor said the report supported their argument that pharmacists were at the frontline of delivering primary healthcare.

About 96 million visits were made to pharmacy outlets in 2007, equivalent to 23 visits per head of the population, says the report.

Ms Hoctor said the report dispelled many of the misleading characterisations of their profession, especially in relation to profit margins.

“There are many small pharmacies providing vital health services to patients, which would have less than the average profit margin and their future should not be jeopardised,” she stressed.

During 2007 pharmacists dispensed more than 60 million medicines under the public drug schemes that accounted for 88% of all demand.

The same year, the average pharmacist fee per medical card patient — a significant proportion of whom are aged over 70 — was €150.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers director Rachel Morgan said Irish people have greater access to pharmacies than many other Europeans, with one pharmacy for every 2,853 people compared with the European average of one for every 3,315.

“Unlike many European countries, Ireland does not allow for pharmacist generic substitution. The aim of generic substitution is to reduce medicine costs,” she pointed out.

The IPU has been advocating for generic substitution for many years.

Clinical professor at the School of Pharmacy in the University of Colorado in Denver, Dennis Helling, said appropriate use of generic medications and effective patient education and self-management of chronic diseases were just some of the ways pharmacies could help in healthcare cost containment.

“By working collaboratively with GPs in the community, pharmacists could also provide a means for more cost-effective delivery of patient care without any need to compromise on the quality of the service,” he said.