Ireland 10 days away from crisis, warn pharmacists

Pharmacists have today warned that the country is 10 days away from a crisis in the supply of medicines.

The call was made at a special meeting in Dublin today attended by more than 1,200 pharmacists from across Ireland.

The controversy has arisen following a move by the Minister for Health to cut payments to pharmacists under the Community Drug Schemes.

More than 1,100 community pharmacists have written to the HSE to say that they will stop dispensing drugs under the Community Drug Schemes from August 1 following the introduction of the cuts by the Minister.

As a result, patients using the Community Drug Schemes may have difficulty finding a pharmacist to fill their prescriptions from that date.

IPU president Liz Hoctor said that the crisis could be resolved and the Minister could still secure her savings if she sat down with the Irish Pharmacy Union to discuss the matter before August 1.

She said: "Does the Minister want to destroy the pharmacy network or does she want to make savings?

"Pharmacists want to help the Minister reduce the national medicines bill, but the way the Minister is doing this will simply 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 these terms."

The meeting also heard widespread criticisms of the HSE’s contingency plans to distribute medicines to patients from August 1.

Darragh O’Loughlin, Galway pharmacist and vice president of the Irish Pharmacy Union said: "The contingency plans announced by the HSE will simply not work.

"The HSE has neither the experience nor the means to adequately replace the pharmacy network. It is unrealistic to expect sick and elderly patients to travel to centralised hospital dispensaries to get their medicines from people they don’t know."

O’Loughlin warned that thousands of patients may not be able to get necessary medicines if the HSE does not introduce adequate contingency plans.