Pharmacy Fees
In line with a motion passed at the AGM, the Executive Committee and the PCC Committee discussed and reviewed the ongoing work on our proposal to claim for an increase in pharmacy dispensing fees. The committees noted that dispensing increased 19.5% in the last 12 years while there have been significant reductions in payments to pharmacists. As we are all too aware, global inflation is now having a significant impact on costs within the sector.
FEMPI
The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (FEMPI) was repealed in 2017 and replaced with the Public Service Pay and Pension Act, 2017 (PSPPA). This Act sets out the process for the unwinding of FEMPI which began in 2017 for public servants on lower incomes. As has been highlighted in the media recently, senior public servants are now due to have their FEMPI cuts unwound as the Act sets out clearly that the restoration of pay to public servants can ‘not fall later than 1 July 2022.’
Regulation of Fees to Contractors
The PSPPA sets out that the Minister ‘…shall before 30 June 2020 and every third year after carry out a review of the operation, effectiveness and impact of the amounts and rates fixed by regulation…’ In other words, our fees will be subject to review before the end of June 2023. It is unlikely that the Minister would review or change our fees before this time. The current Programme for Government also commits to commencing talks on a new pharmacy contract. The proposed cuts to our fees, deferred in 2019, were due to be tabled again by Minister Harris at the time during these proposed contract talks. The priority of the PCC Committee currently is to seek an increase in fees over talks on a new contract although both are not mutually exclusive.
PCC Proposal
The IPU will seek a flat dispensing fee of €6.50 and propose to eliminate the current tiered fee. Currently there is no scale of efficiency for dispensing more Items. This provides the State with value for money. Dispensing fees to the sector would therefore increase by €144m or 37.1%. The total payments to pharmacists would increase by 10.4%. Community pharmacy has delivered considerable cost efficiencies for the State and this increase would assist the sector to cope with growing economic pressures and inflation.
Immediate Plan of Action and Timelines
- July: Prepare Pre-Budget submission to include the arguments around a fee increase. Budget day brought forward to 27 September;
- August: IPU position paper and lobbying plan setting out arguments and economic rationale for fee increase to issue to all IPU members;
- 21 September: IPU to hold ‘lobbying day’ of Oireachtas Members in Buswells Hotel opposite Leinster House; and
- Late October: IPU regional meetings to be held nationwide.
The strategy set out does not preclude us from looking for fees for services or indeed other means of improving our income. The rationale is that this is a simple and realistic ask that can be understood by politicians and officials in the Department of Health. The Dail is due to rise on 15 July and resume on 14 September.
It is worth noting that in our last two engagements on fees with the Department of Health, they sought to cut our fees so we should not underestimate the scale of the challenge to gain a modest increase in fees for community pharmacy.
It is important that we have a united, co-ordinated, and ongoing campaign to pressure the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to increase fees in line with other contractors and the public sector. We will continue to keep you updated.
