Expert warns dispute will result in casualties

THE CHAIRMAN of an independent body set up to examine payments for pharmacists warned yesterday of “innocent casualties” as a result of the dispute with the Government.

Séan Dorgan said pharmacists enjoyed a privileged position and warned of the possible consequences for customers if the dispute continues.

“One of the distressing things over the last week is the way in which the old, the vulnerable and the sick have been used to try and defend what is indefensible,” he said, during an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme.

“In some respects I think a battle is being fought where the war has been lost for pharmacists. I think what the Government has done will actually stick. I think it probably needs to stick, because both of the state of the public finances and because the system that was in place, which had developed over long years, wasn’t sustainable.”

Following a call by Liz Hoctor of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) for the appointment of an independent third party to review the impact of the cuts, Mr Dorgan said he would not be acting as a mediator in the dispute and would not recommend that anyone else take up the role. “I think it’s past that. I don’t think there’s much room for a mediator,” he said.

The IPU said pharmacists would resume normal services if such a review was agreed.

Mr Dorgan said the situation was “unsustainable” and that the Health Service Executive was paying three times what prescription drugs cost it in 2000. Part of the problem is due to a significant increase in the volume of prescriptions being dispensed under the State’s drug schemes, he said.

“The number of drugs being prescribed in Ireland has increased hugely over recent years,” Mr Dorgan added. “Some 32 million prescription drugs were paid for by the HSE in 2000. This year is likely to be 71 million. That’s the fundamental driver – huge volume increase.” Prices have also risen by between 4 and 8 per cent a year, he said.

Mr Dorgan rejected potential criticism that he was the “Minister’s man”, saying he was taking an independent view of the dispute. In February 2008, the former head of IDA Ireland was appointed to chair the body, which completed its report in June last year.

On the same programme, Minister for Health Mary Harney appealed to pharmacists to honour their contracts with the HSE. She said under competition law, she could not negotiate with the pharmacies on prices.

“There is no alternative to what the Government has sought to do here,” she said. “The decision made has to stand.”

On Thursday, she backed the HSE’s move to threaten legal proceedings against pharmacies which are refusing to fill prescriptions.

Age Action Ireland called on the HSE to review its contingency plans for the dispensing of medication.