Cautious welcome for plans to expand pharmacists’ role 

A CORK pharmacist has described plans to expand the role of pharmacists as a “positive step”.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has announced that from March 1, 2024, the role of pharmacists will be expanded following recommendations of an expert taskforce.

Pharmacists will be able to extend the validity of prescriptions from the current maximum period of six months to 12 months, which will take pressure off of other areas in the healthcare sector, such as reducing GP waiting lists.

Minister Donnelly said: “I’m confident that we will very quickly begin to see the benefits of this measure and I look forward to receiving additional recommendations from the Expert Taskforce in order to further facilitate pharmacists in expanding their scope of practice.”

Dermot Twomey of Cloyne Pharmacy and president of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) said that the news was “a positive step”.

He told The Echo: “The details have yet to be fully worked out, but in a nutshell it means a pharmacist can extend a prescription where they deem its appropriate.”

He explained that during covid, when people were encouraged not to go to the doctor’s unless absolutely necessary, pharmacists could extend prescriptions up to nine months, and described this expansion as “a step further”.

“Community pharmacy has been doing this with the covid regulations particularly when it was hard to get GP appointments, they still do it on a case-to-case basis, but this is empowering us further.

“It recognises the professional role of pharmacy, will allow us to use our clinical training, and is particularly important given the pressure on general practice at the moment”, he said.

The Cork pharmacist said however that “it’s going to have a resource implication in community pharmacy, so the details need to be worked out”, in order to ascertain whether more resources will be required for pharmacies, as well as how this work will be compensated.