The Minister for Health has announced that he is setting up an Expert Taskforce to support the expansion of the role of pharmacists in Ireland. The Taskforce will examine how to enable pharmacists to use their expertise to operate as independent prescribers. It will initially be requested to consider options to establish a formal mechanism and framework to enable pharmacists to extend prescriptions for a range of medicines and medical conditions where appropriate.
While we welcome the announcement, our position clearly remains that our concerns regarding pay restoration need to be addressed as part of the process. Please find our media response here.
We will keep you updated with developments.
