INTIMIDATION CLAIMS:THE HEALTH Service Executive has said that one locum pharmacist who had been working in its temporary dispensing centre in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, had resigned following a serious incident of intimidation.
It said the locum pharmacist concerned had been approached on his way home at night and told that he could have a serious accident.
The HSE said it had provided details of alleged incidents of intimidation yesterday to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the regulator for the pharmacy profession.
It is understood a number of people have been interviewed informally by gardaí arising from complaints of alleged intimidation of staff working in HSE temporary centres.
Informed sources said gardaí had received a small number of reports about verbal altercations at HSE facilities in the northwest, specifically in Donegal town and Castlerea. The reports alleged intimidation as part of the dispute, but up to last night only one of the complainants had made a formal signed statement to the Garda.
The HSE said last night that one statement had been made to gardaí yesterday.
One Garda source said the complainants had been very unhappy at the manner in which their credentials and qualifications for dispensing medication had been questioned in an allegedly aggressive manner by parties opposed to the HSE.
Sources said that while gardaí would increase monitoring at some of the sites at the centre of complaints, this would involve mobile patrols.
The HSE also said yesterday that there had been two incidents in Donegal of female pharmacy staff being verbally abused, and another in Castlerea.
It said that in Donegal there had also been incidents of locum pharmacists receiving anonymous abusive phone calls.
The Irish Pharmacy Union has said that it would condemn any intimidation by its members but it had not seen any evidence of this.