THE CHIEF executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) Prof Brendan Drumm has asked local health service managers to provide three alternative sites each to dispense drugs and medicines for patients in the event of pharmacists withdrawing from the State community schemes.
In a confidential memo to senior managers sent on Wednesday, he also suggested that in the future hospital pharmacies could enter into new arrangements to provide services for general practitioners.
In the memo, Prof Drumm said the threatened withdrawal of services by pharmacists, who dispense drugs and medicines under the community scheme on a contract basis with the HSE, was “potentially a cause of very significant worry for many thousands of people, particularly those who were elderly and vulnerable”.
A spokesman for the Irish Pharmacy Union, which represents pharmacists, said yesterday that more than 1,000 of its members had now written to the HSE giving notice of their intention to discontinue providing services under the community drugs schemes in protest at Government cutbacks in fees and payments.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has introduced measures to cut fees and payments by about €133 million in a full year. The pharmacists have maintained that this will make many of their businesses unviable and lead to the loss of up to 5,000 jobs.
HSE sources said yesterday that they were confident that a significant number of pharmacists would continue to provide services. However they also believe that there would be a number of areas where services may not be available.
The new memo from Prof Drumm to senior management represents one element of an overall contingency plan for the continuation of services for patients, which Ms Harney said last week was being drawn up by the HSE.
Prof Drumm said that the concerns of patients needed to be allayed quickly by putting in place arrangements that will ensure that there is no interruption to the supply of medications to the public in the event that retail pharmacists withdraw services.
The HSE chief also said that hospital managers needed to increase their capacity to provide patients on discharge with their medication.
“There may also be significant opportunities for hospitals to look at generating income going forward by establishing new arrangements in relation to dispensing arrangements to local general practices and community facilities,” he said.
HSE sources said that one area that could be looked at would be for the relatively small number of GPs, mainly based in rural areas, who also dispense drugs and medicines for patients, to receive their stock from hospital pharmacies rather than from commercial outlets.
Under the new reforms, pharmacies will be paid dispensing fees structure-based on a sliding scale. They will get €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.