Published: Tuesday, 11th August, 2009 12:00pm

Pharmacies dispute hitting the poorest and the illest

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The dispute between the Minister for Health and the pharmacies in this country is unpleasant - and paying the greatest price in the entire debacle are people who are relying on vital medicines, and who are, in the main, people on medical cards or with long term medical conditions: in other words, those most in need.

It cannot be right that patients who are relying on insulin, heart medication, and other medication are now faced with the stress of having to hunt around for pharmacies where they can have their prescriptions filled.

Happily, Mullingar is not the worst-affected area: but that is not to say that local pharmacies are in any way coming around to the Minister's stance on the issue.

The pharmacists' argument is that they cannot afford to stay in business with the reduced fees payable to them from the state for those on community drugs or medical cards schemes.

The Minister's belief is that medicines are costing too much, and that the state cannot afford to pay pharmacists at the level it has been doing up to this.

Unfortunately for the pharmacists, on this one, the public isn't really on their side. Like the farmers, who were in the past accused of "always whinging", the pharmacists face a major perception problem: the public just doesn't believe that they are facing hard times.

In addition, there is no disputing the fact that sixty miles from Mullingar, in Northern Ireland, drugs are often significantly cheaper than they are here in the south.

In fact, in some cases, drugs cost twenty times less. Yes: twenty times less, not twenty per cent.

Travel further afield again, and the drugs cost even less.

The pharmacists say this isn't their fault: they are being charged more by the drugs companies than are pharmacies abroad, and they cannot afford to sell drugs - either to private or state-funded patients - at the prices at which they are on sale in other countries.

An Irish Times report recently indicated just how great the price differences are: they found that a month's supply of Zoton Fastab, which is used in the treatment of ulcers and reflux, costs €38 in Dublin and €7.50 in Enniskillen, and that a year's supply of low-dose aspirin will cost an Irish patient at least €80, while in the US, the cost for one year would come to just €5. They also cited the incidence of Omeprazol, used for patients with reflux, would cost €48 for a month's supply here, but just €3.50 in Spain.

The pharmacists say they are being charged more by the manufacturers for drugs than are pharmacists in other countries.

This may well be true. But why is it so? Why isn't this aspect of the problem being tackled? Surely the Irish Pharmacists' Union can, on behalf of the over 1000 pharmacists in this country, negotiate some sort of bulk deal with manufacturers?

There are calls for the appointment of an independent arbitrator to sort out the dispute between the Minister and the pharmacists. Something has to happen.

No-one wants to see pharmacies closing. But even more importantly, no-one wants to see people with chronic health conditions trawling from town to town trying to find a pharmacist willing to dispense the medicines they need.