THE HSE will ask the High Court on Thursday to make an order compelling hundreds of pharmacies to continue to provide "critical" medicines and other services under the Community Pharmacy Contractor (CPC) agreement for some more weeks so the HSE may make "contingency plans".
Hundreds of pharmacies have told the HSE they plan to terminate or suspend such services from Thursday next but the HSE claims that proposed action is unlawful because the pharmacies are required to provide three months' notice of termination of contract and have failed to do so.
Brian O'Moore SC, for some pharmacies, said yesterday that they will provide the services on Thursday pending the outcome of the HSE's injunction application. Last week, the HSE served notice of its intention to seek an injunction restraining nine pharmacies from refusing to provide services under the CPC until the three-month notice period under the contract had expired.
The HSE claims the pharmacies are not lawfully entitled to terminate their contracts without such notice and that it needs the additional time to put contingency plans in place.
Yesterday, after Mr Justice Peter Kelly stressed the public needed clarity about the situation and that he did not want a procession of court applications against individual pharmacies, the HSE indicated it will seek an order which would effectively apply to all pharmacies.
The HSE move comes amid what it has described as an "orchestrated campaign" by pharmacies arising from the HSE's plan to reduce prices paid to pharmacies for drugs under the scheme.
Hundreds of pharmacies are involved in legal actions challenging what they claim is the unilateral and unlawful HSE decision to reduce their mark-up on medicines. Those cases will be heard within the next few months.
The HSE claims the practical effect of the threatened termination of contracts on Thursday will be to deprive patients of supplies of their medicines and drugs and that it carries a "serious risk" of endangering the health of members of the public, particularly the poor.
While some pharmacies were saying they would provide the medicines for cash, payment might simply not be an option for poorer patients, it says.
When the application was mentioned yesterday, Mr O'Moore, for the pharmacies, criticised the HSE's handling of the matter, saying it had been aware for a long time of the situation but had chosen to move now when there were talks under way with the pharmacies.
Paul Sreenan SC, for the HSE, said termination of the contracts this week would lead to massive public inconvenience to achieve an industrial relations objective by the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU). His side would be seeking to join the IPU to the case, counsel added.
There were negotiations going on all the time with pharmacies about different matters and it might be that a simple step in talks was being given more prominence than it deserved, counsel added.
More than 500 pharmacies have written to the HSE saying either they are terminating their contracts on or before May 1st or are reserving their position on terminating that day or generally.
Meanwhile, a meeting took place yesterday between the IPU, the HSE and Department of Health representatives to try to resolve current issues. The IPU said the meeting was constructive and there will be further contact over the next 24 hours.