Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for giving up his time to take this matter. I tabled it because I am greatly concerned about the lack of availability of standard medicines in the pharmacy network throughout the country. I welcome the fact that we have extended the qualification threshold for medical cards. An awful lot more of our citizens now qualify for medical cards compared with a few years ago. That is good because it follows through on the principle of Sláintecare and ensuring that we have a public health service that is accessible to everybody.

I will outline a problem. On one hand, we are making it more affordable and easier to access medicines by providing medical cards to more people and reducing the drugs payment scheme. On the other, because of the shortage of medicines - and internationally at this stage - people cannot get the medicines they require either through the drugs payment scheme or with medical cards in a growing number of cases. For example, a specific medicine is unavailable but there is a licensed alternative. However, that is not available through the medical card or the drugs payment scheme. People who are vulnerable or financially stressed – as we know, people are very challenged at the moment – are not in a position to fund their medicines, so they end up not taking medicines and they wait until the medicines that are listed under the various schemes come back into stock. This is putting pharmacists in an awful situation. They are trying to advise people to take their medicines, which have been prescribed for very good reasons. If people cannot afford to pay for alternative medicines, they decide not to take them for a couple of weeks.

I cite the example of a medicine that is used for thyroid issues. Forgive my pronunciation, but a drug called NeoMercazole is usually prescribed by GPs. The alternative, which is licensed and recognised, is a medicine called carbimazole. Unfortunately, it is not listed for use under the medical card or drugs payment scheme. If it was listed, people with thyroid difficulties who did not have the prescribed medication could get a licensed alternative.

If we were really interested in ensuring that people are as healthy as possible, drugs would be as accessible as possible to those who need them. We need to review the schemes and increase the medications listed under them dramatically. The shortage in medicines will not be resolved today or tomorrow. It will take a long time. I ask for a full review of the medicines listed under the drugs payment scheme and the medical card scheme.