Pharmacies can 'reduce demand on A&E units'
The head of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has described the past ten years as a “wasted decade” for the health services in general and the pharmacy sector in particular.
Dr Karl Hilton said at the Annual President’s Dinner of the IPU that Government apathy with the pharmacy sector has blinded it to the opportunity to harness the potential of pharmacies to reduce demands on A&E units, doctor’s surgeries and hospital beds.
"In every other country in Europe, the burning issues in pharmacy are how to safeguard the professional role of the pharmacist and how to maximise the skills of the pharmacist in order to reduce the need for patients to fall back on other, more expensive treatment facilities. In Ireland, we can’t even get the Department of Health and Children to respond to our letters offering ways by which we can contribute further to primary care."
Dr Hilton said that pharmacists should be allowed to prescribe some medication to reduce the pressures on A&E units.
He also said that the public should be educated about critical healthcare issues and healthy lifestyles.
Dr Hilton said that the lack of response from the Department to these initiatives should be of national concern.
He said: "It would be disappointing if they responded unenthusiastically - but not to respond at all is surely a disgrace.
"In 2003 we presented to the government a blueprint for how Pharmacy services could and indeed should develop. We costed these plans and showed in black and white how patient care would be improved while providing better value for money and less waste.
"Has the government embraced these ideas? Not at all. It would appear that they are talking to every other part of the supply chain, but ourselves; and indeed to every other professional organisation within healthcare but ourselves."
