Madam, - In HEALTHplus (March 4th, the HSE criticises the Irish Pharmaceutical Union for holding a meeting of members to discuss the current dispute "contrary to normal practice" on a business day.
This is just another example of how out of touch with reality the HSE is.
Increasingly pharmacies open throughout the week, and every day is a "business" day. My local owner-run pharmacy at the top of my road now opens seven days with Sunday being a half-day.
My local pharmacist told me she faces a drop in income of about €30,000 p.a. under the new arrangements the HSE is trying to impose on pharmacists.
Is it wrong for her to attend a meeting to protect her business and her patients on a "business" day? - Yours, etc,
ENID O'DOWD,
Moyne Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - A HSE spokesperson has repeatedly criticised pharmacists for holding their major national meeting on a Wednesday instead of a Sunday. Does he not know that large numbers of pharmacists work on Sundays and would have been unable to attend the meeting? Pharmacists went to great trouble to arrange emergency services to reduce public inconvenience to a minimum. Perhaps he feels that ideally the meeting should have been held in the middle of the night!
In my 50 years in pharmacy, this is an unprecedented situation.
Pharmacists are considering the extraordinary HSE proposals which will cause many bankruptcies and end the existence of pharmacies in many rural areas.
I have provided an emergency pharmacy service every Christmas and Stephen's Day for over 30 years. As with recent HSE dealings with pharmacists, I found his comments deeply insulting. - Yours, etc,
DAVID BOLES,
Drumcondra,
Dublin.