PHARMACISTS in Cork have again reiterated their serious concerns that new cost-cutting measures being introduced by the Health Service Executive on March 1, will have serious impacts on community pharmacies.

Last September, following an analysis which revealed that the current medicine wholesale mark-up in Ireland is 17.66 per cent, the Health Service Executive (HSE) announced that it was reducing the reimbursement price it pays to pharmacies on medicines from 17.66 per cent to 8 per cent from 1 January 2008 (later deferred to March 1) .

The HSE confirmed this week that from next week it will be cutting the price it pays for wholesale delivery of medicines to pharmacies. It said that while members of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union and contractors are concerned that pharmacies will be charged more for drugs than they are reimbursed, that they have along with the manufacturers received explicit assurances from wholesalers that the net monthly cost to pharmacies for reimbursable products will not be greater than the amount reimbursed by the HSE.

They also announced that to alleviate concerns expressed by the pharmacists union on the impacts of the move, it will be offering pharmacists the option of an Interim Pharmacy Contract based on a single flat dispensing fee of per item payment model and that to ensure this flat fee is fair and reasonable and appropriately validated, they have agreed with the Minister for Health and Children that it should be assessed and recommended by an independent body. They said if a higher fee is recommended by the independent body and accepted by the Minister it will be applied with retrospective effect to March 1. However, local pharmacists say that with or without this interim contract, the fundamentals remain the same and they are still worried about the fact that from March 1 they will be paid less for the items they dispense.

Cork IPU representative Keith O’ Hourihane, of Tower Pharmacy said, "we’re still extremely concerned that from this date we will be operating at a loss and we are urging the HSE to remove the threat they are making to community pharmacies.

"We are just looking for a fair process and a fair deal and we are not looking for the HSE to pay us less than what we’re paying for medicines," he said.

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