Gardaí to patrol temporary pharmacies

GARDAÍ will start patrolling the HSE’s temporary pharmacies from today amid allegations that protesting pharmacists were intimidating staff at the sites.

Up to 800 pharmacies withdrew from the state drug scheme on Saturday over the Government’s decision to slash the fees paid to pharmacists to operate the scheme.

In response, the HSE set up a number of temporary facilities to provide urgently required medicines to people whose local pharmacies were no longer dispensing.