Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Wren for the report, which I read last night. It is obvious it was written by a general practitioner, GP. None of us can deny that the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, had a very serious impact on this sector over ten years, as they did on the pharmacy sector and on services for patients, which we have all tried to mitigate as much as possible. Professor O'Dowd mentioned that GPs want to be salaried GPs in the earlier phase of their lives, which is understandable. Nobody who has undertaken seven years studying to obtain a degree would be want to end up in precarious employment.

Based on my first reading of the report, I have concerns relating to the clinical pharmacist element of it. I worked as clinical pharmacist in the NHS for a number of years. I note there is to be a distinction between pharmacist and clinical pharmacist. I also worked for ten years as a community pharmacist, to which I brought the skills I had obtained at undergraduate level and intern level and the experience I gained in the NHS. Most community pharmacists, in particular those who have come through the modern system of training, would consider themselves to be clinical pharmacists. I would be opposed to the concept of a two-tier pharmacist. Many of my pharmacist colleagues work in the hospital sector and they do a certain amount of training in CPD through their jobs to upskill them in the areas of oncology and so on.

It was mentioned that a pharmacist's role is in the area of drug safety and drug interaction. I believe a pharmacist's role in the community is far greater. Throughout the recession we all took on roles that were not our natural roles. I believe the relationship between the community pharmacist and his or her patient cohort is unique. That said, I believe that the general practitioner should be the anchor for people in the community. In other words, the person to whom the patient should go in the community is the person, the GP, who knows all about him or her. I am delighted to hear that the practice of self-referrals has ended, which addresses the concern regarding who reads results, etc.

It is shocking that only 4.5% of the overall health budget goes to GPs. We seem to be getting very good bang for our buck from that 4.5% given the number of people who go through the GP setting. On the proposal regarding the clinical pharmacist role, which is to be based on the NHS model, I am very much against us copying the NHS in any regard, apart from its ideology with regard to universal health care. The NHS system does not seem to work. Based on the population of Ireland, a community pharmacist would have a very close relationship with approximately 2,000 patients. The proposal to bring community pharmacists into a primary care setting under the employment of the GP for one day per week-----