‘The minister is intent on obliterating us’
Mr O’Hourihane runs a busy pharmacy in Tower, near Blarney. He and his family, along with a business partner, also have four other local pharmacies in other parts of Cork city, from Glanmire on the northside, to Douglas on the southside of the city.
It may seem like big business, but, in international terms, it is the equivalent of the corner shop.
“The Government’s demands for pharmacists to cut their fees by 40% will kill us,” says Mr O’Hourihane. “Some multinational pharmacy companies turning over enormous figures will be able to weather the loss, but not local Irish pharmacists. It will mean the loss of local businesses and local jobs.
“We employ 63 staff throughout our pharmacies and we have a wage bill of €2 million a year, yet Health Minister Mary Harney wants to cut our income by €1m a year. It’s just impossible.”
The local chemist could go the way of their counterparts in Britain. Thousands had to close as a result of similar measures there but now, ironically, the British government is helping to support plans to reopen many of them, at huge cost.
O’Hourihane, who runs Pharmacy First Plus in Tower, sees this as a very threatening time for pharmacists and their staff.
“We are expected to deliver the same level of service for little over half the cost. It just won’t work. I do not mind accepting a certain level of pain and, in fact, pharmacists have already offered €84m in savings to the minister, which would involve us taking a reduction in fees in the region of 8% but she is not engaging with us.”
Mr O’Hourihane says he has no problem in taking his share of cuts, but believes the minister’s plans will devastate Irish small businesses at the expense of the multinationals.
“The minister is intent on obliterating local Irish pharmacies. It is just not on.”
THE State claims pharmacists’ mark-up on medicines is more than double the EU average.
It says the new rate, a cut in the mark-up which it claims is in the order of 25%, will save around €133 million a year.
The HSE tried unilaterally to reduce fees last year, but the pharmacists took a successful court challenge forcing Health Minister Mary Harney to legislate for the reduction this year.
It took effect from July 1, but, because the legislation allows individual healthcare providers to opt out with 30 days notice, services will not be withdrawn before then. Schemes affected include the medical card scheme and long-term illness scheme and a number of other community drugs schemes.
Pharmacists argue the fee reduction will cut income by 34%, lead to the closure of small pharmacies and 5,000 job losses.
A MOTHER of a young boy with diabetes whose life depends on a daily injection of insulin says the withdrawal of services under the long-term illness scheme (LTI) is akin to removing critical care from the very ill.
She says pharmacists should not have the power to withdraw life-saving treatment. She does not know where she will get her son’s drug supply from August 1 – the pharmacists in her locality have all told her they will not be supplying drugs under the state schemes from that date.
“Do they expect us to travel miles to health centres and queue for our rations? Do they have any idea what it is like for a parent living with the reality of a child who needs regular medication to survive?” the woman, who did not want to be identified, asked.
Among those entitled to free medication under the LTI scheme are patients with acute leukaemia, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, epilepsy, haemophilia and spina bifida.
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