The final 150 Data Champions have been confirmed, and the system vendors are implementing their solutions to support the associated data collection.
The Department of Health national survey for members of the public is still live. You are encouraged to highlight it to patients who, when completing the survey, will be asked about the care and treatment they received under the CCCS. The survey aims to provide information on how the service is being used and to identify ways it can be improved to meet the needs of the public. To highlight the survey to members of the public a poster is included with this month’s edition of the IPU Review.
Invitations have now been issued to 400 pharmacies to participate in this service by ordering free condoms and lubricants to provide free of charge as part of private consultations such as emergency contraception. The aim of the service is to further support such patients in engaging with safe sexual health practices. Phase three of the rollout will continue in May 2026 with a further 200 pharmacies set to be contacted directly by the HSE and invited to participate in the service.
We encourage pharmacists and their teams to engage with this initiative. It is intended to be a supportive tool to help enhance the consultations you are already having about sexual health on an ongoing basis. The NCDS are currently seeking feedback from the first 400 pharmacies invited to participate to understand why certain pharmacies have chosen not to get involved at this stage. This feedback will help inform future phases of the rollout in a manner that supports both HSE and pharmacy workflows.
As a reminder, an article outlining the service and the process by which pharmacies can participate in the NCDS was published in the March edition of the IPU Review. This was followed up in March with the issuing of Circular NCO-06-2026. In this issue of the IPU Review we are including an article on the healthpromotion.ie website and how to get set up with an account. Copies of these materials and further information on the initiative, including a HSE NCDS Operational webinar, are available on the NCDS Hub on the IPU website.
The IPU Community Pharmacy Committee (CPC) together with HSE Health and Wellbeing (HSE H&W) have agreed the following public health campaigns to be supported across the community pharmacy network as part of the commitments outlined in the CPA25:
Men’s Health Week will run from 15 to 22 of June. The theme for Men’s Health Week 2026 is ‘One Step at a Time’ and we want you to encourage men who attend pharmacies to make ‘progress not perfection’. A briefing on the campaign took place in late May and it is available to watch back on the IPU National Public Health Campaigns hub on ipu.ie.
A full Men’s Health partner pack will be provided in advance, including campaign overview, key messages, posters (where available), digital assets, and printed leaflets. Materials will be available to order via HealthPromotion.ie and will also be distributed via the IPU National Public Health Campaigns hub on ipu.ie.
A series of articles are included in this month’s edition of the IPU Review to support with staff briefings, training and conversations with men attending your pharmacy.
To support evaluation of the campaign and ongoing delivery in practice, pharmacies will be required to complete a brief end-of-campaign survey. Further detail will be communicated in June. Pharmacies are also encouraged to send any information/pictures highlighting the delivery of this health promotion activity in their pharmacy to the IPU Professional Service team at pharmacists@ipu.ie.
Work to get pharmacies set up to deliver this service is underway. Stericycle, who currently hold the HSE contract for clinical waste disposal, will manage the service. Stericycle will be contacting pharmacies to set them up on the national ‘HSE Returned Medicines’ account. Each pharmacy in the country will receive two x 60L returned medicines collection bins which will be used for the service. These bins should be kept aside in the pharmacy backshop until the HSE communicates further details on the operation of the scheme.
It will take a number of weeks for bins to be delivered to all pharmacies in the country. No communication will be issued to the public until all pharmacies have their bins. Once all bins are in place a national launch date for the public communications will issue. This communication will focus on supporting patients to understand how returned medicines should be presented in the pharmacy. It will also clearly outline what cannot be accepted, with signposting to alternate waste collection options also set out.
Updates will be shared via the IPU newsletter, website and WhatsApp channel as and when available.
The process for making relevant amendments to primary legislation to support the delivery of this service by pharmacists under the Free Contraception Scheme is ongoing. This will be further progressed over the coming months.
Engagement is ongoing with the HSE National Screening Service on the Phase 1 health promotion activity. The Community Pharmacy Committee are supporting with the provision of feedback on managing this Phase 1 activity in practice. Work is ongoing to finalise the training approach and resources to support the health promotion activity, which will take place through 2026.
Under the CPA25, changes to the phased dispensing model were agreed. These were paused with agreement in January and were to be implemented in April. After a period of engagement, a new agreement was made between the IPU’s Pharmacy Contractors’ Committee (PCC) and State stakeholders. The negotiated proposal as agreed by the PCC has been ratified by the Executive Committee.
The new agreement replaces the previous phased dispensing model, in place prior to CPA 2025, with a GMS Medicines Optimisation Service, with an increased focus on medicines optimisation support for patients. Under this model, pharmacists will determine the most appropriate optimisation supports, where clinically indicated, for certain cohorts of medical card patients.
The new arrangements will be implemented from 1 June.
A dedicated hub on the IPU website contains a range of resources to support with understanding and implementing the service. The addendum to CPA25 to replace section 3.4.3, a recorded IPU Members Information webinar, FAQs and clinical support tools are all available on this Medicines Optimisation Support Service hub.
Section 4.3 of CPA25 includes commitments to modernise prescription management and reduce unnecessary administrative burden, while maintaining regulatory safeguards.
Legislative amendments have been introduced to enable pharmacies to move to electronic record keeping. This is a very positive step forward to reduce administrative burden for pharmacists and their teams. Work is now underway to determine how best to support practice change for what is a very significant change to day-to-day practice. IPU is working on determining how best to support members with operational readiness, workflow guidance, dispensary set-up and team engagement. Supporting teams with digital skills and understanding the approach that is required for system validation, is a key part of this activity.
The PSI public consultation on the revised PSI Guidelines on Record Keeping in a Retail Pharmacy Business closed on 19 May. A copy of the IPU submission to this consultation is available on the IPU website.
Clare Fitzell
Secretary General, IPU
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