The Department of Health has delayed far too long in producing legislation governing statutory disciplinary and fitness to practise procedures within the pharmaceutical sector.
While such powers have been given to the Medical Council and An Bord Altranais in relation to the medical and nursing professions, no such arrangements have been made for the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.
The society, which regulates the pharmacy sector, wants to bring pharmacists against whom serious complaints are made before a fitness to practise committee and, if found guilty, to have the power to strike them from the register.
In a separate development, the president of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, Mr Richard Collis, yesterday called on the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to allow members of the profession to prescribe medicines to the general public in narrowly defined areas. Such a development, he said, would be of particular benefit to low-income families without medical cards and it would also free up resources at general practitioner level.
The application by pharmacists coincides with the imminent announcement of pilot projects to be established within hospitals and nursing homes, under which nurses will be allowed to prescribe medicines in certain limited circumstances.
Although such arrangements for nurses have operated in Britain and in the United States, they were resisted by the medical profession here, which traditionally has had a monopoly on prescribing drugs. Pharmacists in Britain have also secured limited prescribing powers.
In normal circumstances, the removal or limitation of a monopoly would benefit the public. But pharmacists, unlike nurses or doctors, are in a special position in that they would both prescribe and sell the medication.
The chairman of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr Richard Brennan, sees separation of these roles as a valuable safeguard for patients and opposes the change.
There is no doubt that a conflict of interests could arise. Such an eventuality would have to be guarded against. In the past, doctors themselves were not immune to pressures and blandishments from drug companies in the choice of expensive drugs. But, in a situation where patient care is being threatened by a growing shortage of doctors in general practice, there may be circumstances in which pharmacists should be permitted to prescribe to a limited degree.
Before the Minister for Health could consider such a development, however, he would have to introduce statutorily-based disciplinary procedures for the pharmacy sector. At the moment, if a pharmacist is unwell or has a drink problem and gives out the wrong medication, he cannot be struck off. That must change.