Pharmacy body warns over job losses

UP TO 1,600 jobs have been lost in the community pharmacy sector in the last nine months, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has claimed.

The union says staff reductions are the result of cuts in payment to chemists under the State drugs scheme, which have cost pharmacies an average of €100,000 in lost earnings.

According to the IPU, about 300 pharmacists and 1,300 support staff have been let go as firms are forced to reduce opening hours and provide fewer services to patients.

Its survey found net profits fell by an average of 38 per cent after Minister for Health Mary Harney reduced payments to pharmacists last summer for medicines dispensed under community drugs schemes.

The survey comes ahead of the IPU’s annual general meeting.