THE IRISH Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has said new rules on how drugs are prescribed for psychiatric patients in the Dublin area will pose “a barrier for vulnerable patients”. Medical card patients attending psychiatric outpatient clinics in the old eastern health board region will now have to attend their GP for prescriptions.
Since 1998, such patients had been able to get a prescription at their outpatient clinics. Now, they will receive an outline of their prescription there, but they must take it to their GP to have it written on a special General Medical Services prescription form.
Pharmacist Bernard Duggan, vice-chairman of the community pharmacy committee of the IPU, said “errors in transcribing prescriptions between the clinic and the GP are a concern for patient safety”. A HSE spokesperson said: “All discretionary arrangements for how some regions have operated in the past have to be looked at.”
