Pharmacists call for urgent law to let them supply substitute medicines amid shortages

Irish Pharmacy Union president Dermot Twomey in Cloyne, Co Cork: “[I]f an antibiotic is prescribed for a child but that is short — like, at the moment, Calvepen liquid — as pharmacists, we could substitute for an alternative antibiotic.' Picture: Eddie O'Hare

A crisis in procuring medicines, with hundreds of them unavailable or in very limited supply, has sparked calls from the Irish Pharmacy Union for emergency legislation to allow pharmacists to supply substitute medications without GP approval.