truthseeker
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DublinTexas, Truthseeker,
are you saying that you or people you know have been paying more than the DPS limit each month for presciption drugs?
Surely the pharmacy should tell you?
Also, I can't believe that people don't know about this scheme. It's mentioned in the Budget each year, as the Govt often increase the limit.
By the way, people can also get tax relief on the 80 or 100 cash payment that they have to pay each month.
Radia on boards.ie:
The pharmacists aren't striking. They were given only two choices by the HSE - keep your contract, with a reduced payment (typically 34% reduction) or give 30 days notice to end your contract.
Depending on the mix of business and the ability to take the hit, some pharmacists stayed in (Boots being an example; I presume they have huge bulk buying power for things like hair colours etc which is the bulk of their business and can afford to take a hit on prescriptions). Others (especially small rural pharmacies who rely on prescriptions for the majority of their business and don't have enough cosmetics etc to cross-subsidise it) rejected the contract. They simply wouldn't receive enough money from the schemes to pay their rent, staff wages, electricity bills etc. Continuing to trade, knowing you are doing so at a loss, is called reckless trading and is illegal.
They gave their 30 days notice. The HSE knew they would no longer be in the schemes. They had a month (more than a month when you consider any sensible manager would anticipate not everyone would accept the new terms) to put contingency arrangements in place. It is the HSE's responsibility to have health services in place. So they said they would prepare a contingency plan and all would be well.
And the HSE said - and continue to claim - that their contingency arrangements are working very well. According to them, everyone is getting their medicines, there are no unnecessary delays, everything is fine. According to the HSE we don't need any of those pharmacies who have withdrawn, look around, see all the pharmacies that are open and happily dispensing away. In fact, according to the HSE it would be far better if we stuck to the lower number of pharmacies we have now - there were far too many before. It doesn't seem to matter to them that this would represent about 5000 extra people on the dole queues - not just those 'greedy' pharmacists but their staff. It doesn't seem to matter to them that people are queueing down the street at the pharmacies that still have contracts. It doesn't seem to matter to them that people now have a 2-3 day wait in many cases for simple, common and essential items.
Pharmacists gave notice they were pulling out. They warned the HSE that they didn't think their contingency plans would be sufficient. They have fully co-operated with the HSE's contingency plans, referring their patients to the contingency dispensaries, and in some cases even arranging transport to them. Many are still continuing to provide advice to patients who have obtained their medicines elsewhere, and to check them for safety - without any recompense at all. What else can they do?
The HSE continues to insist they are on top of the situation and everything is fine. Clearly this is rubbish. They claim that 75% of pharmacies are still open and dispensing normally. Clearly this is rubbish too. So if they are so blatantly telling lies about this, do you not think it's time to question some of the other statements they are making? We know their record of patient care in the hospitals, and the lies and spin they have come out with in relation to numbers on trolleys. This is no different.
I don't know what work you do, but imagine for a moment that you are a pharmacist. You receive enough money to cover your business expenses, pay your staff, take home a salary to pay your mortgage. Then one day you hear - by a press release, not even a letter to you - that the payments made to you will be cut by 34%. This is not enough to cover all your outgoings. Are you seriously saying that you would accept these new terms and just keep going until you were bankrupt and prosecuted for reckless trading?
Frodi on boards.ie
Just further to the earlier question as why are pharmacies closed.
I am a pharmacist who has terminated my contract and I am closed. (This is why I now have time to read and post here again)
I opened my pharmacy 6 years ago and have built it up since. I don't do the snake oil/pseudo science products or cosmetics. My business is/was based on 80% prescriptions and 15% OTC meds. Without a GMS contract I am in a reckless trading situation (as would be lot of other recent owners). Company law says that I have to stop trading immediately if there is no prospect of a return to profitability.
It absolutely kills me to have to do this. But with the 34% cuts (actaully it is worse for me) I no longer can stay in business. This is aside from 12 days notice of the changes by way of a press release, the Dept of Health ignoring two of it's own reports (paid at tax payers expense) becuase Harney did not like what they said.
Pharmacists are willing to take cuts but it must be proportionate. 8% for other professionals and 34% for pharmacists. The Dorgan report said that any changes must be phased to allow for the industry to adjust. The current payment set up was 30 years in the making and should not be changed overnight. The HSE gave me 12 days notice but I had to give them 30 days. I and many other did and the HSE choose to ignore it/call it bluffing and did not make proper contingency plans. Even as late as last week they were threatening us that if we went ahead with our terminations that it would take 21 days to allow us to start dispensing HSE schemes again. So as things stand even if I wanted to accept their diktat I and all other pharmacies would have to wait 3 weeks to start dispensing as before.
All we want is proper talks with the IPU who I have paid to represent me. An independent arbitrator with binding arbitration with terms of reference not dictated by Harney. I am 48 years of age and this is the first time that I have been involved in any industrial dispute. All I want to do is to go back to running my pharmacy and serving my patents. It's not a lot to ask.
If you want answers, I think you really need to post in the boards thread where pharmacists can respond. I don't think any pharmacists are able to post here in Letting Off Steam.
I think the above is a load of one sided PR.
Question for pharmacists?
2. Why do we need loads of small pharmacies - in my area there multiple examples of small pharmacies trading next door to one another and loads of small pharmacies within walking distance of one another all with very similar prices? How come the prices are similar? How come the better ones havent come out on top and expanded - do we really need to have pairs of pharmacies next door to one another?
DublinTexas, Truthseeker,
are you saying that you or people you know have been paying more than the DPS limit each month for presciption drugs?
Surely the pharmacy should tell you?
Also, I can't believe that people don't know about this scheme.
Whatever anyone thinks about who is right, the bottom line as far as I'm concerned is that once again Mary Harney has failed in her job. As the manager she is reponsible for this farce and it has proven once again that she cannot manage. Anyone with a bit of cop would not have let it get to this stage, they would have ensured that everyone bought into whatever change was coming, through dialogue, long before the change came to pass. She tried to railroad this change through by bullying and now has a mess on her hands. I don't really care which side is right, as the manager she is responsible for sorting it out and she is failing miserably.
No price competition as:
I suppose a pharmacy is free to not charge the full margin, but I doubt this happens.
- Govt and suppliers agree on ex-factory price
- Govt set the wholesale margin
- Govt set the pharmacy cost price
- Govt set the retail margins
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