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HSE in legal threat to pharmacies

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to issue legal proceedings in the form of an injunction if pharmacists in Dublin do not provide assurances that they will fulfil their contractual obligations in relation to the medical card and community drugs schemes.
The threat of legal proceedings comes after some pharmacists declared their intention to withdraw their services from the schemes from this week.
According to the HSE, each pharmacist is required to provide the health authority with three months’ notice if they wish to terminate their contract.
The purpose of this contractual provision is to ensure a reasonable timeframe to allow for alternative and appropriate services to be put in place in a safe manner, they state.

Pat O’Dowd, assistant national director of the HSE, said: “We have previously contacted every pharmacist seeking assurances that they will act in a professional manner and adhere to their contractual obligations, but we have not received an adequate response to date.”
Mr O’Dowd said that in the absence of the necessary assurances from pharmacists, the HSE will take whatever measures it considers necessary in order to ensure that patient safety is not compromised.
However, Tom Ginnety, who owns Clonsilla Pharmacy in Dublin 15, said some of his colleagues had already received solicitors’ letters from the HSE warning them of a court injunction if they withdrew their services.
He claimed that he and other pharmacists in the Dublin 15 area had been contacted by fax and asked to clarify their intentions.
“We see this as just one more heavy-handed manoeuvre on the part of the HSE,” said Mr Ginnety. “After we reluctantly withdrew methadone services in October last, we were persuaded to go back to the table and negotiate. We were given certain assurances that certain areas would be looked at but this has not happened.”
Mr Ginnety went on to say that the last thing pharmacists wanted was to withdraw services from the community.
“To disenfranchise the community is the last thing we want to do,” he said. “For example, a lot of local pharmacists bent over backwards to make the methadone protocol work in the beginning.”
He added: “Pharmacists have had to bear the cost of extra security personnel and alarm systems that had to be installed.
“In my own premises I have to operate a ‘buzzer system’ that actually puts off a lot of ordinary customers but it is necessary and the methadone protocol has benefited the local communities greatly.”
Mr Ginnety added that he and his fellow pharmacists in Dublin 15 remained open to negotiations with the HSE but felt that their concerns were being ignored by the executive.
Commenting on the issuing of solicitors’ letters by the HSE, Cllr Paul Donnelly (SF) said: “As a result of Health Minister Mary Harney’s decision to cut repayments to pharmacies under drug refund schemes, many pharmacies have been left with no option but to withdraw from the scheme.”

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