Pharmacy Services
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

I thank the Senator for raising this matter and for giving me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to clarify the position on the phased dispensing and monitored dosage system, which is also known as blister packs.
I wish to clarify that phased dispensing and monitored dosage systems and blister packing are not the same thing. While the State has supported phased dispensing under the community pharmacy contract since 1996, it has never supported monitored dosage systems. The State supports phased dispensing for patient safety reasons and will continue to do so. Community pharmacies receive additional fees for this service. The supply of medication in instalments can support patients using certain high-risk medications who are at risk of accidents if these medications were to be supplied on a monthly basis, as is the norm under the community drug schemes.
The community pharmacy agreement does not remove phased dispensing. These medicines will continue to be supported by phased dispensing and fees will continue to be paid. On the other hand, monitored dosing systems, which are sometimes referred to as blister packs, are systems that allow the individual doses to be organised according to the prescribed dose schedule. As noted earlier, the State has never agreed to fund monitored dosing systems and there has never been a fee associated with them under the pharmacy contract. However, a practice has built up in some pharmacies where the use of monitored dosing systems is being charged as if for phased dispensing. The State has never agreed to this inappropriate claiming. Significant expenditure was being incurred by the State that was never intended and for a purpose outside of the contracted arrangements, with limited evidence of effectiveness. The introduction of improved controls around phased dispensing is being done in a way which puts patient safety first and allows the State to repurpose funding to be used to implement new patient-centred services. It remains open to pharmacies to charge patients or not for the use of monitored dosing systems as a private service, as many currently do.
Phased dispensing supports have only ever been in place for medical card holders. Claims for blister packing are not reimbursable by the State and this has not changed. The rules for phased dispensing have been set down in several HSE pharmacy circulars, and any claims put through for blister packing under the phased dispensing arrangements have been inappropriate claims. Charges for blister packing currently vary between pharmacies and this is a matter for them as private businesses. Some pharmacies do not charge for this service. Community pharmacies use different methods to assist their patients, including counselling, reminder charts, the Know Check Ask system with the HSE and tools like pictures or large-print labels and alarms.
These are used in particular for older people, people with disabilities and people with multiple conditions to ensure that they manage their medicines safely.
In the context of the negotiation of the community pharmacy agreement 2025, the first such contractual negotiation with the sector in 30 years, the State used the opportunity to negotiate and agree improved controls to further reduce inappropriate claiming for monitored dosage systems as phased dispensing. However, the Minister for Health last week agreed to pause the changes in the phased dispensing control mechanisms until the end of quarter 1 of 2026. The Minister has been working on this for the past few months.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16