THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has been ordered by the High Court to pay the substantial legal costs of a successful test challenge by the Hickey's pharmacy chain to the decision to reduce payments to pharmacies for drugs and services provided under the General Medical Services scheme.
The HSE is also facing a potential €50 million claim for damages as a result of the High Court finding it acted in breach of its contract with pharmacists. The Hickey action was a test action for hundreds of other pharmacies.
Yesterday, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan made directions for the exchange of legal documents relating to the issues to be decided in the damages claim. A hearing date for the damages issue has yet to be fixed. The judge also made formal declarations and heard submissions for the costs.
Gerard Hogan SC, for Hickey's, applied for all costs while Paul Sreenan SC, for the HSE, argued it should get its costs or each side should bear its own costs because, he argued, the ground on which the pharmacies succeeded was raised at a very late stage.
The judge said she saw no grounds to accede to Mr Sreenan's submission and awarded costs to the Hickey's side.