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22/07/2008
Pharmacists Begin Legal Challenge With HSE
Legal proceedings brought by pharmacists against the HSE's decision to unilaterally cut the price for its wholesale medicines is due to get underway on Tuesday.
The HSE imposed an 8% reduction in the price it pays pharmacists for medicine in an effort to save €100m.
More than 800 pharmacists threatened industrial action and a refusal to dispense medicine under the medical card and community drugs schemes.
However, they agreed to continue operating the schemes after the HSE removed some categories of drugs from the price cuts and promised to address a number of other long-standing issues.
Despite the deal, individual pharmacists are still pressing ahead with legal challenges to the price cuts.
Pharmacists have on Tuesday also demanded the immediate publication of the Pharmacy Pricing Body Report on payments for pharmacists which was completed in June and which has been with the Minister for Health and Children since then.
Liz Hoctor, the President of the Irish Pharmacy Union said that the delay in the publication of the Report was further fuelling the crisis in the pharmacy sector.
"We are calling on the Minister to publish the report as a matter of urgency and agree to implement its recommendations so our members can see whether it has any potential to assist pharmacists in the short term who are struggling financially as a consequence of the HSE's … decision to reduce their payments by 30%.
"In the absence of this Report, the sense of crisis within the Pharmacy sector is growing daily," she said.
The Irish Pharmacy Union claims the HSE move could put more than 300 pharmacies out of business, with the loss of more than 4,500 jobs.
(DW)
The HSE imposed an 8% reduction in the price it pays pharmacists for medicine in an effort to save €100m.
More than 800 pharmacists threatened industrial action and a refusal to dispense medicine under the medical card and community drugs schemes.
However, they agreed to continue operating the schemes after the HSE removed some categories of drugs from the price cuts and promised to address a number of other long-standing issues.
Despite the deal, individual pharmacists are still pressing ahead with legal challenges to the price cuts.
Pharmacists have on Tuesday also demanded the immediate publication of the Pharmacy Pricing Body Report on payments for pharmacists which was completed in June and which has been with the Minister for Health and Children since then.
Liz Hoctor, the President of the Irish Pharmacy Union said that the delay in the publication of the Report was further fuelling the crisis in the pharmacy sector.
"We are calling on the Minister to publish the report as a matter of urgency and agree to implement its recommendations so our members can see whether it has any potential to assist pharmacists in the short term who are struggling financially as a consequence of the HSE's … decision to reduce their payments by 30%.
"In the absence of this Report, the sense of crisis within the Pharmacy sector is growing daily," she said.
The Irish Pharmacy Union claims the HSE move could put more than 300 pharmacies out of business, with the loss of more than 4,500 jobs.
(DW)
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