The Health Service Executive (HSE) this afternoon denied a claim by a major Irish drugs wholesaler that some pharmacies would be selling drugs at a loss under a new pricing regime.
The row broke out as dentists today voiced support for pharmacists, whose protest against the new arrangements has led to fears that methadone users could return to using heroin with a serious risk of overdose.
The interventions by wholesaler Uniphar, which is a pharmacists' co-operative, and the Irish Dental Association (IDA) follows the start of a Competition Authority investigation yesterday into pharmacists' withdrawal from the methadone dispensing scheme.
Around 140 pharmacist withdrew from the scheme on Monday in a dispute that came to a head over reimbursement rates they receive on drugs sold to medical card holders.
The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) says this will slash profit margins for its members and, in some cases, lead to drugs being sold at a loss. The claim was repeated by Uniphar today.
It said in a statement: "Uniphar has confirmed to the HSE that as a result of the executive's unilateral decision announced on 17 September, some pharmacies will be reimbursed at less than the wholesale price.
"Uniphar has, during discussions with the HSE, explained that such a reduction in the reimbursement price will close hundreds of pharmacies. In its response, the HSE said that there are too many pharmacies in the country and costing the State too much money."
The HSE denied the claim, however,
saying that Uniphar confirmed to them that pharmacies would not be supplied with medicines at a cost higher than the amount reimbursed to them by the HSE.
"The wholesale price reduction followed a detailed analysis which shows that the current medicine wholesale mark-up in Ireland, at 17.66 per cent, is more than double the EU average and twice what the retail pharmacy sector pays wholesalers for their services," a spokesman said.
The wholesale mark-up will be almost halved from next January.
The IPU is also angry at the Health Service Executive's (HSE) refusal to support measures for providing better security in premises where methadone is dispensed.
The HSE has said it cannot negotiate with the IPU because setting prices or fees with groups contravenes competition law. But the dental association today accused the health body of using competition law to undermine representative bodies.
It said the HSE had "orchestrated recent events" and was stumbling from crisis to crisis because of a lack of planning and negotiation with representative bodies.
"If this is persisted with, it will have profound implications for the entire health sector," Dr Maurice Quirke of the IDA said.
The HSE has set up 11 centres for registered methadone users to collect their prescription. But this is likely to cause so much difficulty for some addicts that they are likely to return to heroin use with an increased likelihood of overdose, according to experts.