Ms Anne Marie Seymour:

It may be a little bit longer in the UK. Their system is different in that they do not have this generic substitution. If there is a different brand but it is the same product, they are not entitled to do this substitution. Our Health Act already allows for that. What is proposed here is specific expansion of where the product is therapeutically different. This is where, for example, the main ingredient is different but one gets the same result for the patient. It is to manage that piece and that is where we will see the use of this medicine substitution protocol. A good example would be something like an antibiotic. Last winter, when we had issues with access to antibiotics, work was done by the HSE with regard to clinical guidance which would enable a pharmacist to change the antibiotic without sending somebody back to their prescriber to get a new prescription. That is the kind of area in which this will deliver.