PHARMACIES IN Waterford and Wexford closed their services to prescription holders yesterday due to unprecedented volumes of patients needing medication.
British group Boots, which is not involved in the dispute between pharmacists and the HSE, said it was “something we had to do” to clear the backlog.
When contacted, the branches said they were not taking prescriptions and when asked where else in the areas prescriptions were being filled they said there was no other pharmacy open. Callers were being directed to Tramore and Enniscorthy.
A spokesman for Boots Ireland confirmed Wexford and Waterford branches had closed yesterday. The branch in Swords, Dublin, had closed on Wednesday and remained closed yesterday.
“It’s something we have to do to get through the extra volume coming because other pharmacies have closed. Emergency prescriptions will be filled but we are asking people with non-emergency prescriptions to hold off until the weekend.”
A spokeswoman for the HSE said there were other contracted pharmacies in the areas but could not confirm whether they were open.
Other branches of Boots around the State reported being under severe pressure with one manager telling The Irish Times he was running out of even such basic items as the contraceptive pill.
Prescription holders were being told at Boots in Liffey Valley they would have to wait two hours, with patients at Boots in Nutgrove, Rathfarnham, being told to come back today for prescriptions left in yesterday. There were long queues yesterday in Boots in Henry Street, Dublin, where patients were asked to come back in two hours, or today if they could wait.
One frail, elderly woman said she had been to three chemists in Fairview and all had been closed. “So I’ve come into the city centre now to get it.” Asked if she was annoyed, she said: “No, no I’m not. I’m just glad to get it in the end. And at least I’m able to make the journey into town.”
One Boots branch manager, who did not want to be named, said there had been a five-fold increase in the volume of prescriptions coming in, while a pharmacist from another Dublin branch said she was still filling prescriptions left in on Tuesday. “This is becoming a really serious health and safety issue. We are under such pressure someone is bound to make a mistake.”
The managing director of the Unicare group, Cormac Tobin, said front-line staff were under “enormous pressure”. Unicare, which has 72 branches throughout the State, is dealing only with its own patients, saying it has not the capacity to take on new patients.
In other parts of the State the HSE’s temporary dispensing pharmacies are continuing to cause concern among some patients.
Siobhán O’Malley, who is the daughter-in-law of an elderly couple in Castlebar, Co Mayo, has written to her local TDs about the experience of the couple, Paddy and Frances Burke. She said Mr Burke had to wait five hours after handing in their prescriptions at the temporary pharmacy. Only his wife’s medication was dispensed.
She said she had “grave concerns” that Mrs Burke’s medication was labelled with no warnings or instructions. Mr Burke rang his own pharmacist for advice as he had no medication. “He gave Paddy a 48-hour supply of his requirements as he was unable to return to Castlebar on Wednesday. It simply is not acceptable in a modern, first-world society, a supposed democracy,” said Ms O’Malley.
