Pharmacy Services
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel

The phased dispensing fees are being changed, whether a pharmacy chooses to put them in a blister pack for the patient's convenience or compliance and whether the State ever agreed to pay for it or not. It paid for phased dispensing and pharmacies' blister pack medication. Some charge and others do not. The changes to the phased dispensing fees are where the pharmacies will lose out. They will no longer be able to pack medication for that because the list of medications now covered under phased dispensing is the issue. Phased dispensing is the only fees the pharmacy gets. That is where the problem will come in. I do not understand how this list was chosen. There is a certain group of medications here. This definitely did not come from any pharmacists or healthcare professionals because there are more complex medications like those for diabetes or those for someone who may be blind. How did was the decision reached that these are the only drugs covered for phased dispensing now? They are normally what end up in a blister pack. They need to get them phased and it needs to be on a weekly basis. The pharmacy discusses with the patient whether it is putting them into a blister pack and whether it is charging or not. The fees are the issue. There will no longer be reimbursement of the fees.

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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