Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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450. To ask the Minister for Health the reason patients have to pick up a long-term prescription on a weekly basis from a pharmacist, which ultimately increases the number of charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28466/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, which regulates community pharmacists, advises that the optimal and safest way for dispensed medicines to be supplied is through direct supply to the patient or carer following a face-to-face interaction between a pharmacist and the patient or carer in the pharmacy. This direct communication with the patient or their carer allows the pharmacist to evaluate the patient’s overall health and health needs, perform a therapeutic review of the prescription, and for the required patient counselling to take place. It also allows the pharmacist to verify the authenticity of the prescription and to evaluate the safety and appropriateness of supplying the medicine in the particular circumstances presented.

In general, monthly prescriptions are dispensed by pharmacies on a monthly or 28-day basis depending on the type of medicine and the form in which it is packaged by the manufacturer. A prescriber may, on occasion, request that patients are only supplied with one week's supply of medicine at a time, due to the nature of the medicines involved and/or any ongoing safety concerns for the patient. In such circumstances, the prescription would be required to be dispensed by the pharmacy on a weekly basis, and this would be governed by the particular patient's care needs. This is known as phased dispensing. The rules in relation to dispensing have not changed since 1996.

I have been informed by the HSE that its Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) issued a letter to all pharmacies on the 5 May to reconfirm the rules applying to phased dispensing.