Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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687. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to address the shortage of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the State. [22630/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Pharmacists wishing to practise in Ireland must be registered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI – the Pharmacy Regulator). The number of registered pharmacists on the Register of Pharmacists held and maintained by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI), the pharmacy regulator has continued to grow steadily, with an average increase of 187 registrants each year over the past five years. 6846 pharmacists are currently registered with the PSI, under established processes based in Irish and EU law.

Pharmacy technicians are employed and play an important role in many pharmacies, supporting the operation of the pharmacy and the work of pharmacists, and make a valuable contribution to pharmacy service delivery. In Ireland, however, there is no definition of “pharmacy technician” in legislation, and technicians are not subject to a statutory professional regulatory regime, nor is the qualification standardised across the various providers of pharmacy technician education and training.

I understand that currently there are reports to the PSI of a current acute workforce issue, particularly in relation to community pharmacy, and indicate that this is being driven in part by an increasing number of pharmacists choosing to work in a locum capacity. This has a knock-on impact on pharmacist vacancies, and potentially on continuity and consistency of service. The PSI has been liaising withstakeholders, including the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) on efforts being taken within the sector to understand and address the issue. In February 2022, PSI met with a number of superintendent pharmacists and the IPU. The PSI also circulated a survey on behalf of the IPU to all registrants to support in efforts in understanding and addressing the issue in the short term, the results of which are pending. I understand that the IPU are seeking to establish a stakeholder group to examine the issue.

The PSI is currently undertaking a project, due to run across 2022-’23, ‘Emerging Risks to the Future Pharmacy Workforce’. In 2022, this project is set to “assess emerging risks to the continued availability of a professional pharmacy workforce within community and hospital pharmacy in Ireland”.

The European commission is also currently supporting a health and social care workforce planning strategy and action plan, a health and social care workforce planning model, health and social care workforce projections and gap analysis project. Support includes recommendations for health and social care workforce reforms.

This is a complex problem with many contributing factors and multiple stakeholders. Workforce challenges are being experienced in other sectors nationally, and in the pharmacy sector in a range of other countries. However, robust data for Ireland is needed to be able to determine the current landscape, assess future health system needs and understand existing sectoral challenges now and into the future. It will be on the basis of gathering and analysing this up-to-date, robust and relevant data, that recommendations can be proposed to address Ireland’s needs as Ireland’s healthcare system evolves, and in the context of Sláintecare implementation.