Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

No. We are not making hospitals retail pharmacy businesses. What we are covering is a situation where hospitals supply drugs to outpatients, as happens with certain drugs. A person has to come back to hospital for a certain anti-depressant drug called Clozaril, which requires the taking of a blood test every two weeks because it can be highly dangerous. This can only be done in a hospital environment. There are issues surrounding premises and the pharmacy in a hospital for which we are not legislating. It will be a major task, probably to be dealt with in the next Bill or perhaps through the licensing regime we hope to introduce for hospitals. A pharmacist practising anywhere is covered by the provisions of this legislation but we are not making hospital pharmacies into retail community pharmacies. Somebody asked me the other evening if that was the case; we have had the issue clarified and it is definitely not the case.