A PHARMACY in Co Dublin last year received more than €1 million in fees and mark-up payments from the HSE for dispensing medication under the various community drug schemes, HSE figures released yesterday show.
The figures show Abbey Healthcare Ltd on Abbey Road, Monkstown received €1.088 million. The Unicare pharmacy on Tonlegee Road in Coolock and the Unicare pharmacy at Artane Castle shopping centre received €925,000 and €900,000 respectively.
In a statement, the HSE said the figures showed the fees and mark-ups paid to each pharmacy contracted for dispensing under the State drug schemes for 2006 and 2007. It said the figures did not include amounts paid by the HSE for the cost of the drugs.
The HSE said fee and mark-up payments to pharmacies for the schemes were, on average, about 10-12 per cent of total turnover.
"Therefore, the turnover for a pharmacy getting fees and mark-ups of €300,000 would be, on average, about €2.5-€3 million," it stated. "Total State payments for the drug schemes are, on average, 30-40 per cent of pharmacy turnover and do not include what pharmacies earn from private patients or people under the monthly €90 threshold [ for the drug payment scheme].
"The table does not include income from over-the-counter medicines, toiletries, perfumes.
"In addition, pharmacies got another €143 million from local health offices for hardship schemes, medical appliances, unlicensed medicines."
Under the current contractual arrangement, pharmacists are paid in two main ways by the State, through fees or a mark-up on the cost of a product. Under the medical card scheme, pharmacists receive a fee of €3.27 per item dispensed. No mark-up applies in the case of the medical card scheme.
Under the drug payment scheme and the long-term illness scheme, pharmacists receive a fee of €2.86 and a mark-up of 50 per cent of the cost of the product.
In a statement, the president of the Irish Pharmacy Union, Michael Guckian, said the average payment to a pharmacy last year was over €200,000, from which the pharmacist had to cover salaries and overhead costs associated with a high-quality service.
"However, many pharmacies earn considerably less than the average. One hundred pharmacists earn up to €50,000, 139 pharmacists earn €51,000-€100,000. In every sector, there will be a few at the top doing very well, but this does not reflect the typical community pharmacy, which is a small, independent business."
Mr Guckian said the overall net profit margin in community pharmacies was 5-6 per cent. He said the fees and margins earned by pharmacists amounted to €367.63 million last year, which represented 21 per cent of the total State expenditure on drugs under the community schemes.
The union criticised HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm for "scaremongering" over his comments that frontline services would be hit if it did not succeed in saving €100 million on a new payment system for pharmacists.
Mr Guckian said the union had offered to talk to the HSE on how savings could be made, but that it would not engage.