Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This relates to a pharmacist's discretion not to dispense a medicinal product. The purpose of section 15 of the Bill is to ensure that requirements regarding generic substitution do not affect a pharmacist's discretion not to dispense a medicinal product. As originally drafted, section 15 was explicit in its expectation that the pharmacist's professional opinion will inform the decision to dispense or not on the grounds of the health of the patient. However, in practice under the current regulatory regime, one of the most common scenarios in which a pharmacist might refuse to dispense a prescription is where the pharmacist has a concern that the person presenting the prescription may be planning to sell or supply the medicines to other individuals or on the street. In this case the pharmacist would usually refuse to dispense the prescription not necessarily on the basis of a concern for the health of the person named on the prescription but on the basis of concern for the safety of others and the integrity of the supply chain.

The pharmacy regulator, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, expressed concern that the scope of section 15 be broadened to explicitly provide that a pharmacist would also not dispense a prescription if the pharmacist had a genuine concern that dispensing it might put others at risk. Section 15 was, therefore, amended to broaden its scope to take into account the pharmacist's obligation not to dispense a medicine on a prescription on the basis that it may cause harm to the health of the patient named on the prescription or the health and safety of any member of the public. That is the addition for which this amendment provides.