In the run-up to Election 2024, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) urged voters to ask candidates about their ambitions for Ireland’s pharmacies. The IPU said it believes pharmacies have the potential to revolutionise community care over the next five years. However, this transformation must begin with ending the 16-year pay freeze that pharmacies have endured.
IPU President Tom Murray outlined the significant ambitions of Irish pharmacies to provide more care to patients. “The current government through the Expert Taskforce recommendations has laid the foundations for significant expansion in pharmacy services. It will now fall on the next government to do the all-important job of implementation, making these recommendations and accessible care a reality. The potential is huge, with opportunities for independent autonomous pharmacist prescribing, greater accessibility to hormonal contraception care, and the implementation of a common clinical conditions scheme, to name just a few options.”
While the sector is enthusiastic about these changes, Mr Murray warned this must be preceded by a meaningful change in the funding model. “Pharmacies deliver essential State-funded healthcare services through community drug schemes, but fees for these professional services have been frozen since 2009.
“It is unreasonable and unviable to expect pharmacies to operate with 2009 professional fee structures whilst operating with 2024 costs. Currently, one-in-10 pharmacies is loss-making, and without swift action from the next government, pharmacy closures will become a reality.
“To prevent this, the IPU is calling for an increase in the professional fee to €6.50 per item of medicine dispensed under the community drug schemes, a modest adjustment seeing reinstatement to the 2009 rate.
“A number of political parties have pledged in their manifestos to review professional fees and pharmacy funding,” he continued. “When a new government is formed, we will be holding them to account on this issue and will expect to see this commitment reflected in the Programme for Government.”
Mr Murray concluded: “Pharmacies are the most accessed part of Ireland’s health service and primed to expand helping their communities. But this expansion requires fair funding. The choice for the next government is clear — fund pharmacies and watch the sector thrive, or allow pharmacy funding structure to continue to struggle, with constituents bearing the inevitable consequences.”
