There’s not much trust left between pharmacists and politicians, writes Ultan Molloy
Hey there! Well, we’ll probably have a new Government and hopefully a new Minister for Health by the time this arrives through your door in December. My recent excitement about the budget allocation for extending services and resourcing pharmacy has, however, been tempered by the ongoing HRT fiasco.
After an announcement that HRT will be made free to anyone who needs it from the start of 2025, I’m less than optimistic given the lack of a provision for a dispensing fee for pharmacists, and issues with sourcing HRT. Hopefully it’ll be worked out. This is a progressive step for women – who have put up with a lot for a long time – and for our health service.
Let’s see what progress can be made in pharmacy when our new TDs bed into their roles. Simon Harris hasn’t been much of a friend to us up to now. Meanwhile the Fianna Fail manifesto proposes reducing the maximum monthly cut off for the Drugs Payment Scheme to €40 per family per month over the next five years. Such a move would only serve to further squeeze our profitability and viability. The ongoing pressures due to wage inflation, sick pay, and pension legislation coming into effect, mean we will have to see how we can remain viable in our businesses.
Now much of the above is good news for our staff and customers, of course, and is to be welcomed, but pharmacy needs to be resourced to ensure our future viability and support our roles as the most accessible healthcare professionals in our communities.
Access to pharmacists hasn’t been an issue for patients but remains so for many people trying to get appointments with a GP. Thankfully their work overload hasn’t stopped some medical practices going out into schools and delivering vaccination clinics to pupils, mind you. It’s also going to be the most successful winter flu vaccination programme for our young people ever, I suspect, which is good news for public health.
We approached a few schools and, in many cases, the lack of information (“we only do the HSE vaccines”), anti-vax tail wagging the dog element (“we don’t want to upset any of the parents who don’t like vaccines”), no reply at all, and the downright rude/hang up the phone response has been an education. The variety of school buildings, the atmospheres in different schools, and the differences in organisational ability have also been interesting to learn about.S I feel lucky that we have our kids in a school where the adults show respect and kindness to one another, and to strangers, so that pupils there can see healthy behaviours being shown by the adult role models. Unfortunately, it seems this isn’t always the case, or a given.
I had some interesting conversations along the way with principals. One secondary school principal estimated that his students are getting less than five hours sleep a night on average, and that the use of cocaine is becoming a major issue. It led to psychosis and the death by suicide of a lovely young man recently which has left the whole community rattled.
With politicians knocking on our doors daily, asking them about resourcing community pharmacy probably feels like it should be lower down the list of social priorities than eradicating drugs from our communities. In any case politicians appear to pay little heed to community pharmacy, and after 16 years of a pay freeze, no additional services, and no unwinding of Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest legislation, our challenging times look set to continue.
Integrity seems to be an even more disposable commodity now
You’d wonder if is there much integrity to politicians? The side stepping, nodding, promises, and more promises have led to very little for community pharmacy in recent years, although more college places coming on stream is great to see. But integrity seems to be an even more disposable commodity now. Trump-like political behaviour, bullying, and machismo, is not ignored, but instead somehow accepted as the new norm – in the US anyway. Hopefully here as a society we’ll maintain and grow our traditional Irish values of acceptance, understanding, community, and progressive culture.
I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent there again, as I often tend to do. Writing this column has been clarifying and therapeutic in many ways, and I’ve received many texts in recent years from readers saying how they relate to the content, which has been fantastic. I’m feeling more and more like I’m repeating myself, however, and many of the frustrations I’ve had for the last 25 years in relation to the untapped potential for community pharmacy, for patients, and for the future of primary healthcare in Ireland continue to linger. I know we do a great job for the most part for our patients and our communities, and I hope we will continue to do so. I hope there will be new and extended services in pharmacies, a Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in the HSE with a vision for the sector, and appropriate resources to help achieve it.
As for me though I’m going to bow out from my regular monthly contributions and leave space on these pages for some fresh thinking and enthusiasm. Thank you to all of you who have read these pieces and the Irish Pharmacist.
Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and New Year, and a bright and healthy future for yourselves, for pharmacy and for pharmacists.
Ultan Molloy is a business and professional performance coach, pharmacist, facilitator, and development specialist. He works with other pharmacists, business owners, and third parties to develop business strategies. Ultan can be contacted on 086 169 3343.
