A local pharmacist says plans to expand the role of pharmacists in Ireland in order to ease the pressure on GP’s is a positive step.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced the establishment of a new expert taskforce to examine the idea.
It’s hoped recommendations will be in place by October which would allow pharmacists to prescribe medicines and extend prescriptions for patients.
Jimmy O’Sullivan of O’Sullivan’s Pharmacy in Fethard told Tipp Today earlier that pharmacists are well qualified and are in some instances already providing advice to patients.
“We’re probably looking at these conditions anyway and I suppose we are spending time with people and we’re saying ‘I think this is what you have and you have to go to the doctor now because we can’t give you that’. And I mean the doctors are so busy – the surgeries are so jam-packed – its so difficult to get an appointment so hopefully it will take a lot of the pressure off GPs and hopefully help them in the care of the patient.
However Jimmy O’Sullivan says there needs to be a centralised medical record system in Ireland to ensure continuity of care.
“You’re a patient of the GP and that you would have an electronic medical file with them – if we could access just the medication end of that so that if we did a consultation for you on a Saturday we put it up on the central hub and then the GP will see straight away that they were seen by a pharmacist on that day for this and they’re back to me today so maybe there’s something more sinister going on. And they have that bit of information about the patient while they’re in front of them.”
