The 50 per cent mark-up pharmacists automatically get on prescription medicines dispensed to people who do not hold medical cards should be scrapped immediately, according to a report carried out for the policy institute of Trinity College, Dublin.
The report, published yesterday, says that pharmacists should get a flat fee for dispensing to private patients. This is the system which operates when they dispense to holders of medical cards. It also calls for the abolition of the ban on Irish pharmacists trained in the UK owning or opening pharmacies in the Republic which are less than three years old.
The author of the report, Mr Declan Purcell, who is director of advocacy at the Competition Authority, said it was past time for a new Pharmacy Act. The profession was operating under legislation dating back to 1875.
The Irish Pharmaceutical Union stressed that there was no mark-up on 72 per cent of drugs prescribed under various State schemes. It added that it had itself been seeking a new Pharmacy Act for many years.