Changed pharmacy rules ‘to hit jobs, patients’, representative body claims

By Joe Leogue

New rules governing the role of pharmaceutical assistants will cost hundreds of jobs, will predominantly affect women in their late 50s, and will have implications for rural pharmacies and patient safety, a representative body claims.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) is set to introduce rules under section 30 of the 2007 Pharmacy Act that will change the work practices of pharmaceutical assistants, and will limit their ability to cover for absent pharmacists.

However, pharmacists say these new changes will mean that many of them will no longer be in a position to employ pharmaceutical assistants, and will have a detrimental impact on patient safety.

There are 335 registered pharmaceutical assistants registered with the PSI who are qualified to cover the temporary absence of their pharmacist. Following consultation, the PSI intends to limit the amount of time a pharmacist can be absent to a maximum of one hour.

The Pharmaceutical Assistants Association (PAA) has issued a report on the findings of a survey of 160 pharmaceutical assistants and 160 pharmacists — and found that 74% of the latter say they will no longer be in a position to employ their assistant if the new limitations are introduced.

The course awarding the Pharmaceutical Assistant qualification was phased out in the 1980s, meaning all 335 pharmaceutical assistants on the register are aged 55 and older, and 328 (98%) are women.

The association claims the changes amount to an “unwarranted over-riding of constitutionally protected rights of pharmaceutical assistants and service users”.

It said that based on their survey, the changes would mean that 248 pharmaceutical assistants will lose their jobs, and their current pharmacies will be unlikely to find a pharmacist to cover in temporary absences, “making pharmacy services unavailable locally to more rural populations over weekends”.

Pharmacists already working 40 hours or more per week in these pharmacies will have to increase the number of hours they work which will have implications for their health and patient safety,” claims the PAA.

However, the PSI says concern for health and safety is what is driving its changes.

A 1994 agreement stated that pharmaceutical assistants are entitled to cover “short absences, such as lunch hours, two half days or one day off per week, unscheduled short absences and the standard annual leave of the pharmacist”. It stipulated that the maximum number of days the pharmaceutical assistant can cover in the temporary absence of the pharmacist “should not exceed 14 calendar days in any single absence”.

The PSI says its inspections between 2012 and 2016 found high levels of non-compliance with the 1994 agreement, and that pharmaceutical assistants were covering absences in excess of those outlined.

It established a working group to look at the arrangement, and in its report recommending rule changes said the group is of the view “that the circumstances under which a registered pharmacist is allowed leave a pharmacy to be operated in their absence by a non-qualified pharmacist should be exceptional and if allowed should be of a very limited duration”. The rule changes were approved by the PSI last month and will go to Health Minister Simon Harris for approval.