Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is absolutely committed to the ethos of ensuring that the right care is delivered in the right place at the right time for all citizens. He recognises that all healthcare professionals have a role to play in optimising patient care and service delivery in line with this vision. An example of the importance of the role of community pharmacists can be found in their participation in the free contraception scheme for women aged 17 to 25, which launched in September 2022. The scheme was extended to 26-year-old women from January 2023 and it will be further extended to women aged 27 to 30 in September 2023 of this year. I know everybody welcomes this. The participation of community pharmacists is vital to the ongoing success of the scheme. The Senator is talking about taking it another step further. I am sure everything is on the table.

The focus of current scoping work within the Department is to increase capacity in the healthcare system overall, to deliver better healthcare outcomes and ensure that unintended negative consequences in other parts of the healthcare system do not arise. The Minister believes there is a real opportunity to work collaboratively and with other healthcare providers to make a significant difference to patient outcomes. Obviously, this includes our community pharmacists the length and breadth of the country who do Trojan work on a daily basis. I, as the Senator can hear, have made many calls to the community pharmacist in the past few weeks. Community pharmacists give such care and support. The rule brought in a few years ago, whereby all community pharmacists have a private room where one can go to speak in private if one does not wish to be at the counter, was one of the best moves ever made. Community pharmacists offer such a unique role and support to healthcare services in Ireland.