A PHARMACY in Dublin city received almost €1.6 million for dispensing drugs and medicines under various State community schemes last year.
The Medipharm outlet on South Great George's Street, Dublin 2, received €1.590 million in fees and mark-up payments under the GMS, Drug Payment and Long Term Illness schemes, according to official Health Service Executive (HSE) figures which have been seen by The Irish Times.
The Medipharm outlet received €1.55 million in fees and mark-up payments under the Drug Payment Scheme, €27,789 in fees under the GMS or medical card scheme, and €5,5,963 under the Long Term Illness scheme.
Abbey Healthcare Ltd of Abbey Road, Monkstown, Co Dublin, received €1.29 million for dispensing drugs and medicines under the State schemes.
Two Unicare pharmacies, the specific addresses of which are not revealed in the figures, received over €900,000 each.
The HSE figures show that 107 pharmacies received more than €500,000 last year in fees and mark-up payments.
However, at the other end of the table, about 60 pharmacies received less than €40,000, while one outlet in Co Cavan received just €881 last year.
The figures do not include any share of the margin shared by distributors with pharmacists or revenue from “front-of-shop” sales such as cosmetics or from dispensing to private patients below the threshold of the Drug Payment Scheme of €100 per month.
The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU)said last night the level of fees paid to pharmacies varied enormously.
“As we can see from these figures they range from €1.59 million to €818. As in all sectors of the economy, there are large and very small pharmacies.
“The average payment in terms of fees and mark-up to pharmacies is of the order of €300,000 per annum, out of which pharmacists pay all their operational costs such as staff salaries, premises, insurance, etc.”
The new HSE figures for 2008 emerged as the Minister for Health Mary Harney and pharmacists engage in a row over Government moves to cut fees and payments by around €133 million.
Pharmacists are paid by the State in a number of ways, and the Government plans to introduce changes in many of these areas.
At present pharmacists receive a dispensing fee of €3.60 per item under the medical card scheme, while under the Drug Payment Scheme and Long Term Illness schemes for private patients they receive a dispensing fee of €3.16 plus a 50 per cent mark-up on the ingredient cost of the drugs.
Under the new reforms these arrangements will be replaced by a common dispensing fee structure based on a sliding scale.
This will see pharmacists getting €5 for the first 20,000 items, €4.50 for the next 10,000 items and €3.50 for the remaining items.
The Government is also to reduce the 50 per cent mark-up under the Drug Payment Scheme and Long Term Illness schemes to 20 per cent.
The Government is also to abolish a €33 million payment paid collectively to pharmacists for dispensing to patients over the age of 70, which was introduced following the deal to give everyone over that age a medical card.
It is also to reduce the “wholesale mark-up” reimbursement price paid for delivery of drugs to community pharmacies, from 17.66 per cent to 10 per cent.
The IPU has argued that these cuts are excessive and unsustainable, and will damage patient services and lead to 5,000 job losses.
Last week the IPU said 700 pharmacists had written to the HSE giving 30 days’ notice of their intention to discontinue providing services under the community drugs schemes in protest at the Government cutbacks.
Ms Harney told RTÉ's This Weekprogramme yesterday that fees paid to pharmacists had doubled since 2002.
She said she was confident that if pharmacists did withdraw from the drug schemes then the HSE would have a contingency plan in place, and patients would have access to drugs and medicines.