Pharmacy service nationwide set for disruption

PHARMACY SERVICES nationwide are expected to be disrupted today as some 500 pharmacists are due to attend a special meeting in Dublin to discuss the introduction of a new payment system by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has warned that executive moves to reduce wholesalers' margins could lead to the closure of chemist shops, particularly in rural areas. Pharmacists are concerned that they could end up having to pay more to wholesalers for drugs and medicines than they receive in reimbursement from the State.

From last Saturday the executive reduced margins paid to pharmaceutical wholesalers from 18 to 8 per cent in a move aimed at saving €100 million.

IPU president Michael Guckian said last night that if there was not a negotiated settlement then pharmacists would have only two options: to either accept the measures, or to cancel their contracts with the executive. He said the measures would cut one-third of the payments of €320 million made to pharmacists for dispensing drugs and medicines under the community schemes.

He added that one of the core issues was that the introduction of the measures by diktat rather than through discussion.

Mr Guckian said that some pharmacists were taking legal action against the executive but that this could take time.He urged Government to withdraw the new system until an independent group which is looking at new contracts for pharmacists had reported.

Mr Guckian said pharmacists were putting in place an emergency service so that patients would not be affected by closures. He said details of the emergency service would be spelled out in patient's existing pharmacies.

Minister for Health Mary Harney has denied that pharmacists would be charged more than they will receive from the executive under the new system.

"I do not expect anyone to do business with somebody who will charge them more than they will get. Any pharmacist who is charged more at the end of the month should contact the HSE and the manufacturers and that will be sorted out," she told the Dáil last week. She added that in Ireland the wholesale margin for drugs was just less than 18 per cent - twice the rate in Europe