The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7384 p64
21 January 2006

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IPU warns on health centres

Pharmacies being opened in doctor-owned health centres in the Irish Republic are threatening to squeeze other members of the profession out of business, according to the Irish Pharmaceutical Union.

It claims that a recent surge in such developments will create “a captive market for prescriptions”. This, it warns, “will undermine the viability of other pharmacists in the area and lead to closures”.

The IPU, which represents 1,350 community pharmacists across the Republic, is lobbying health minister Mary Harney, as well as government and opposition parties, for legislative curbs on any business link between dispensing and prescribing. It alleges that some doctors, having invested heavily in setting up health centres, then attempt to recoup part of the outlay by offering leases to pharmacists for “substantial sums”.