‘Patients must not be used as pawns’ in dispute

PATIENTS must not be used as pawns by any party in a commercial dispute, patient advocate Stephen McMahon told over 1,000 pharmacists attending an emergency meeting over government fee cuts.

The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) claim more than 1,110 pharmacists have notified the Health Service Executive (HSE) that they will stop dispensing drugs under the community drugs schemes from August 1 because of the 34% fee cut.

Mr McMahon, who is chairman of the Irish Patient Association, said he believed that the current crisis was a violation of patients’ rights.

“Such violations are unacceptable, if they can be avoided. Negotiation is the only way out of this imminent healthcare crisis.”

He suggested that Kieran Mulvey of the Labour Relations Commission be invited to act as an independent facilitator.

The HSE confirmed last night that, at minimum, 867 pharmacies would be filling prescriptions under the various schemes from August 1. Head of the HSE’s primary care reimbursement scheme Patrick Burke said nobody should be too far from a pharmacy willing to fill their drugs scheme prescription.

“While it may cause an inconvenience for some, people should be reassured by the fact that, up to a few years ago, and for more than 30 years before that, the country was well served by around 1,100 pharmacies and on August 1 almost 80% of this number will be open for State Drug Scheme business,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the cost of dispensing medicines under the schemes had doubled since 2002 to over €1.6 billion last year, with fees and other income earned by pharmacists almost doubling.

Health Minister Mary Harney said the cuts would slash payments to pharmacists by 24%, but pharmacists would continue to earn significant incomes from the schemes. Ms Harney pointed out that from next year the price paid by the State for particular drugs under the schemes would be specified and patients getting drugs that cost more would not be reimbursed.

However, the IPU argues the crisis has arisen after the minister cut payments under the schemes by 34%.

IPU president Liz Hoctor said the way Ms Harney was reducing the national medicines bill would not work. “It will undermine patient services, force thousands of job losses and widespread closure of pharmacies. We can help the minister make her savings, but not on those terms.”

The IPU has described contingency plans drawn up by the HSE as inadequate. Galway pharmacist and IPU vice-president Darragh O’Loughlin said it was unrealistic to expect sick and elderly patients to travel to centralised hospital dispensaries to get their medicines.

Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan said the hit pharmacists were being asked to take in one fell swoop was just too much in these hard times.

She wondered if the minister and the HSE were taking a very hard stand against the pharmacists because they did not have the gumption to take on the pharmaceutical companies.

Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Contractors Committee in Northern Ireland have come out in support of pharmacists in the Republic and are urging their members not to participate in the HSE’s contingency scheme.