Pharmacists have called on the Government to allow the supply of cholesterol-lowering drugs to patients without prescription.
Their request follows an announcement by the British Department of Health that the drug simvastatin will be available over the counter in British pharmacies.
Lipid-lowering treatment with the statin group of drugs has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, regardless of cholesterol levels, the president-elect of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU), Dr Karl Hilton said yesterday.
Dr Hilton emphasised that the IPU was not looking to usurp the role of the doctor in the treatment of coronary heart disease.
"Rather, given appropriate training and guidelines, pharmacists are in an ideal position to treat such patients with statins and to effectively monitor their condition for drug side-effects," he said. "What's more, reclassifying statins as over-the-counter medicines will provide a perfect opportunity for pharmacists to discuss other risk factors with patients such as smoking, exercise, diet, and obesity".
Accepting the recommendation of the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM), the British Health Secretary, Mr John Reid, said there has already been a 23 per cent fall in premature death rates and strokes over the past five years.
"This new move will allow more people to protect themselves from the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks".
However, the move has been greeted with caution by both the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Dr Richard Brennan, chairman of the ICGP told The Irish Times that prescribing cholesterol-lowering therapy was a complex decision.
"It is not right to address cholesterol as a risk factor in isolation. These are medications with side-effects. And how is the person to know they need simvastatin?" he said.
Dr Brennan also pointed to a potential conflict of interest for pharmacists who are both prescribing and dispensing drugs.
Dr John Kennedy, prescribing spokesman for the RCGP, said: "Unless the system is rigorously managed, simvastatin could be made available to those who do not need it and the risk of the drug may then outweigh the benefits. Pharmacists will be under a lot of pressure to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease."
"With lower socio-economic groups being at greater risk of cardiovascular disease and least able to afford this preventative measure, we have to urgently consider how access to these useful drugs can be equitable," Dr Kennedy added.
A Department of Health said last night there are currently no plans to make statin drugs available to patients in the Republic without prescription. "It may be something that will be looked at in the future," she said.
