If you have been following the recent developments in the standoff between the HSE and the pharmacists in the Republic of Ireland, you will know that the situation at the moment is anything but peachy. In order to help motivate his fellow pharmacists in this time of crisis, a collegue over at the pharmacycrisis.com has opened a forum thread to help pick a pharmacy anthem. The likes of Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It and You'll Never Walk Alone have been suggested, but the best one must be an old McGaw Pharmacy ad, from the 1990s, which is a must see. I guess some things never change.



Of course, once on youtube.com, I had to browse through the related videos and came across two hilarious Seinfeld videos about pharmacy. You have most likely seen them many times already, but surely there's no harm in seeing them again.





Soooo funny, I had tears in my eyes from laughing :)

On a more serious note, tomorrow will be the D-Day for Irish pharmacy. The 1st of May is when many pharmacists have threatened to pull out of community drug schemes in protest of the bullying from the HSE, who, effective from the 1st of March 2008, have unilaterally reduced the reimbursement prices of medicines dispensed under those schemes by 8.2%. In doing so, they have made the GMS scheme unviable, because the reimbursement prices are now 8.2% bellow the cost price to the pharmacies.

In fairness, that is before rebates and discounts that certain pharmacies receive are applied. Unfortunately however, with the possible exception of the big boys like Unicare and Boots, these don't amount to much and certainly nowhere near 8.2%. Because the GMS scheme has no markup, only a flat dispensing fee of €3.26, this measure will make dispensing under this scheme in most cases, a loss making activity. The more expensive the medication the bigger the loss.

At this point, it's anybody's guess why the HSE have gone about reducing the cost of medicines in such a belligerent manner, going after the pharmacists instead of the drug companies, and targeting the most vulnerable of patients, who rely on the GMS scheme for their free medicine. It could possibly be a tactic to soften the pharmacists up a bit before the real negotiations begin, making them more likely to reduce their 50% markup on private prescriptions and the DPS and LTI schemes. Whatever their reason(s) may be, the truth will eventually come out and hopefully those responsible for this mess, will be held fully accountable. Talk about wishful thinking :)