Pharmacies face having to shut up shop permanently

PHARMACISTS may have to swallow the bitter pill of going out of business now that the good times they enjoyed are crashing to an end.

Particularly vulnerable are those chemists who opened business in the past few years and now face having to shut up shop.

The Irish Pharmacy Union, the representative body for pharmacists, fears that even well-established businesses could end up going to the wall.

Seven years ago, the treasurer of the Irish Pharmacy Union, Dermot Twomey, warned that the good times would not last for ever for the country’s 1,600 pharmacies. But even he never imagined just how bad the bad times were going to get with Health Minister Mary Harney digging in her heels on the new fee structure for dispensing drugs under the community schemes.

Mr Twomey, who has a pharmacy in Cloyne, Co Cork, said the cuts were so severe that even pharmacies established eight to 12 years ago with sound business plans and tight margins would find it very hard to survive.

Chairman of the independent body set up to examine pharmacy pricing, Sean Dorgan, said many pharmacies had been bought and sold at “bubble prices”, a level that was double what normal businesses were selling at.

Pharmacy was a great business to be in the past 10 years because it was guaranteed with a State contract, said Mr Dorgan.

“I think some pharmacists are greatly exposed by having over-borrowed on the back of that,” he said.

Mr Twomey said Ms Harney’s move would wipe an average of €106,000 a year from the bottom line of an average pharmacy – not €82,000 as stated by the minister.