Pharmacists warning patients of long delays
The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has warned that the situation was set to deteriorate further in the days ahead and the Health Service Executive did not realise the magnitude of the problems they were facing.
The HSE, however, said its 10 temporary dispensing facilities were “busy but manageable” over the course of the day and that 1,100 pharmacies were open for State drug schemes business.
However, one participating Dublin pharmacist said that a patient could be waiting a “couple of days” for a prescription to be filled because his business was “snowed under”.
According to the IPU, pharmacists continuing to dispense drugs were coming under unsustainable pressure.
It claimed that many patients were complaining that it was taking between six to eight hours to get prescriptions filled from participating pharmacies. Some were told to come back the next day to get their drugs.
A number of pharmacies throughout the country are only dealing with emergency cases.
The head of the HSE’s primary care reimbursement scheme, Patrick Burke, said that, in general, people living in urban centres had no problem getting medication.
He claimed a minority of pharmacists had decided to use vulnerable people in small isolated communities as a means of reversing a government decision.
“This action is about money. It has nothing to do with patient care,” he said.
Mr Burke said pharmacists who had closed or stopped dispensing prescriptions under the community drug schemes on Saturday were objecting to three changes:-
* The ending of a compensation payment of €33m a year when patients over 70 years automatically transferred to the medical card scheme, a programme that was no longer in operation.
* Inflated wholesale rates that taxpayers paid to protect the discount relationships many pharmacists had with their wholesalers, and costing €77m annually.
* The 6% reduction in pharmacy fees paid under State drug schemes.
The IPU expressed serious concern yesterday about the safety of the dispensaries and said one pharmacist in Kerry who checked prescriptions dispensed to 11 of his patients found eight had been filled incorrectly.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland confirmed yesterday that it had received an official complaint from the HSE that some chemists had intimidated State health staff dispensing medicines on Saturday.
The IPU said it would not condone any intimidation by its members but that it had seen no evidence to back up the health’s authority’s allegation.
The HSE has also written to a number of pharmacists in Mayo, Donegal and Waterford warning that they faced legal action for withdrawing from the schemes without serving 30 days’ notice.
