Pharmacists have no control over cost of drugs

I WOULD like to respond to comments made by Cllr Brian Meaney from Clare (November 12) on the fees paid to pharmacists. The costs of running a pharmacy in Ireland are extremely high — close to €600,000 a year.

Our pharmacy is open from 9am-9pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, in total 66 hours per week. We employ 18 people between full-time and part-time staff.

The payments we receive from the HSE contribute towards paying these costs and enabling us to pay qualified professional staff to provide pharmacy services on the community drugs schemes on behalf of the state.

The reason for the increased costs of the community drug schemes is the increase in the number of medicines being dispensed to patients and the cost of these medicines.

New, effective, but very expensive medicines have become available for the treatment of cancer and other illnesses.

It is Government policy that patients should be treated in the community as far as possible rather than in hospital care.

This is not just more cost-effective, but also the European norm. Health Minister Mary Harney imposed a 34% cut in HSE payments on pharmacists for providing medicines and advice to patients on the community drugs schemes.

This cut is extremely damaging and is undermining pharmacists’ ability to provide services to patients. This will lead to more patients requiring hospital care. The minister is committed to carrying out a thorough review of pharmacy payments next year and I would call on her to consider the full impact of the cuts on patient care in this review.

The fees and mark-up earned by pharmacists amount to 24% of the cost of the community drugs schemes. The vast bulk of the costs (62%) goes to the pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Minister Harney agrees the cost price of medicines with manufacturers.

Pharmacists have no control over this cost. Pharmacists have been calling for a situation where we could drive down costs through being enabled to dispense cheaper generic medicines where appropriate.

However, we are prevented from doing so by Minister Harney’s deal with the manufacturers.

Mary-Jo Duffy

Duffy’s Pharmacy

Ennis

Co Clare