Reilly pledges to address high drug costs
“There are huge savings to be made,” the Minister said as he outlined measures aimed at bringing the-ever increasing national drugs bill under control.
Dr Reilly told a Dáil committee the cost of providing medicines to people on medical cards and other schemes had increased five-fold between 1998 and 2010, rocketing from €400 million to €2 billion.
This was partly due to an increase in the number of people eligible for medical cards and a doubling of the number of items prescribed from 32 million to 68 million annually but also because, he said: “Doctors are prescribing newer, more expensive products.”
Labour TD Eric Byrne said he couldn’t understand why the prescription drug, Crestor, which he took every day to control his cholesterol, cost him 52 cent less per tablet when he bought it in France — a saving of over a year of €189.
Dr Reilly said he didn’t need to go as far as France to see price differences — he was aware of some medicines that were up to 20 times more expensive here than in the North.
He said he planned to push ahead with introducing laws proposed by the last government to allow pharmacists substitute generic medicines when branded products were prescribed but he added that the higher prices were not confined to well-known brands. “The cost of generics themselves must be addressed.”
The minister, fresh from the controversy over the closure of A&E at Roscommon Hospital, also warned that while he would not close any hospitals, there would be no let-off for those failing to operate within budget.
“There is no cavalry. There is nobody coming over the hill with more money. It’s not there,” he said, warning that this year’s €14.142bn health budget would not be supplemented.
“While all hospitals, including the smaller ones, will have to take difficult decisions to stay on budget — including the temporary closure or reduction of some services — there will be no hospital closures, either as part of reconfiguration or as part of budgetary measures,” he said.
However, he added that smaller hospitals could expect changes in the nature of the services they provided. “It is vital that they are allowed to do more work in the areas where they are best suited. This will require the transfer of certain procedures and programmes from larger to smaller hospitals.”
Dr Reilly also pledged to cut costs across the health services by tackling the small number of publicly paid consultants who were still seeing more private than public patients, in some cases four times as many.
He also said procurement needed to be centralised, citing the case of scoliosis implants where the types used varied in cost from €15,000 to €25,000. “If the surgeons come together and agree on one type, we can go collectively to a supplier and save hundreds of thousands of euro.”
Independent TD Sean Healy said he was glad to hear the minister’s promise not to close hospitals but noted he didn’t say anything about not closing departments within hospitals.
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