Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister. I welcome the development that has occurred. The collaboration between the HSE, the Department of Health and the IPU is a welcome development. The agreement that has been reached shows that providing healthcare in the community is extremely important. Progress is being made in this area. Over recent years, pharmacies have been playing a greater role in providing healthcare. It is important for that to continue to grow. What has been agreed is safe, it is equitable and it is about efficient delivery of healthcare.

There is a number of areas in the agreement about digitalisation. We are far behind in that whole area. Compared to the rest of Europe, we are behind most other EU countries in digitalisation. I keep mentioning that in other countries there is one card which allows your GP, your pharmacy or your hospital to access and see your medical records where required. When you go into the pharmacy with the card, they can access your records to see what medication you are on to make sure there will not be a problem with any new medication you are given. The other area where it is important is with regard to non-prescriptive medicine. At present, you can go to ten different pharmacists in a day and get the same drug, even if that drug is addictive. We have no system for controlling that. Digitalisation is so important in such circumstances because it means you cannot get medication from a pharmacy unless you have your own card. That controls it. It is something that we should move to.

Another issue raised in relation to this agreement is about trying to encourage people to get involved in the bowel screening programme. That is extremely important as well.

Another aspect of the common condition service, whereby a pharmacy can provide a consultation and identify the suitable medication if it is a non-prescriptive medication, is that the care is provided at a local level rather than the person having to wait for a period of time to get access to their GP. This service means that the pharmacy can provide the support the person needs.

I wish to raise with the Minister a concern that has been expressed to me in relation to blister packaging, which is very much available. My office is in Blackpool, where a large number of elderly people rely very much on blister packaging. This service, which involves items being put into a blister package for the particular day on which it is used, is only available on a once-a-week basis. I have spoken to people in a pharmacy that has over 60 customers who rely on that service. They get €4.10 for doing the packaging. It can take up to 45 minutes, which is quite a lot of time, to put the package together for each customer. I understand that under this agreement, the fee for this service is being abolished. Pharmacists are concerned because this will affect certain areas. It is fine if you are in an area where you do not have a population that relies on the level of support that these people require. I wonder if this could be looked at. The pharmacies are certainly concerned that the fee is to be phased out from January and will be restricted to a small number of medical items. I ask that this be looked at. I can come back to the Minister with further details on it if she wishes.

There is now a lot more co-operation and co-ordination of medical services, including GP, pharmacy and hospital services, than ever before. It is important that we continue to further develop that. The area of digitalisation is important because we need to make sure the people who are working in the pharmacy behind the counter can access the information they need to make sure the right medication is being provided. We need to ensure that a person cannot go to a lot of pharmacies on one day to get large quantities of non-prescriptive medicines. That is a big issue we need to deal with.

Overall, this is a welcome development from the Department, the HSE and the IPU. It will be of assistance. We have a growing population. We are training more GPs than ever before but people do not necessarily need to go to a GP for a lot of the care they require. That is why this agreement is giving support to pharmacies and the people involved, every one of whom is highly trained and highly specialised and can provide the care that is required by the person who calls to them to get advice. It is important that we, from a Government point of view, support those people who provide that service to the community and the people who live in it.

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