Last year, the HSE announced that it was to reduce the reimbursement price it pays to pharmacies on medicines from 17.66 per cent to 8 per cent, a promise they fulfilled on March 1.

The move has caused great concern among pharmacists who have argued that these reductions mean that they simply cannot deliver the same patient services with local representatives suggesting that the HSE is making pharmacists reduce patient care in favour of operating better business models.

And, if this is the case, then this is a very serious problem. The health system and pharmacy services was never meant to be about profits and  good business models but, about providing a service to the public; providing advice to the mother who is worried about her infants temperature,  the elderly patient who has questions about their new medication and the diabetic patient who needs their costly dose of insulin.

Health never was and should not be about money, but, this, unfortunately is what our health system is about today.

While it can be argued that the prices we pay for medicines should indeed be reduced and put in line with best practice models, this should never be achieved by putting the livelihood of pharmacists at risk and in turn patient care. Afterall, pharmacists should be care providers and not businesses.

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