asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he will state the reasons why pituitrin, camphor in oil and sphygmomanometers are omitted from the official order lists for use in the dispensary services of the Saorstát, and if he will add the above articles to the current lists.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dispensary Order Lists.
The prescribed lists of medicine and medical and surgical appliances contain all articles in common use in dispensaries and hospitals. It is impossible to include in these lists all drugs and appliances. It is not intended to add to the lists pituitrin and camphor in oil, which can be applied for by special requisition. The sphygmomanometer is not ordinarily used in dispensary practice. Cases requiring its use should be referred to the county hospital.
Is the Minister not aware that pituitrin and camphor in oil are drugs used in every-day practice, and is he not further aware that the requisition by special lists entails delay and that in cases where these drugs are needed one could not wait to order them by special requisition?
I am not aware that there is any special delay because an article has to be applied for by special requisition. The Deputy will understand that we cannot place all the drugs that are available in the market on these special lists. There is an arrangement by which, in special circumstances or in the case of a special doctor who utilises these things particularly, they can be got by special requisition.
Surely the Minister will agree that in cases where pituitrin is necessary it is used for the most part in obstetric practice. These are cases that cannot wait for special requisitions. Surely the Minister will agree that one cannot wait in ordinary confinement cases to get special requisition forms to obtain pituitrin.
The drug about which the Deputy speaks is a special drug, highly dangerous in the hands of a person who is not qualified to use it and who does not understand it. There is no necessity for its inclusion generally on the lists which are in operation in the Department and which are the most complete and up-to-date lists used in any public service. If there are special persons who want special articles that are not on those lists there is machinery by which they can be applied for by special requisition, and if I have it drawn to my notice—I have not had it hitherto—that there is delay arising in particular cases where articles are applied for by special requisition, it is a matter that can be gone into.
Surely the Minister does not insinuate that ordinary practitioners and dispensary doctors throughout the country are incompetent to handle pituitrin, a drug which they handled in their student days? I intended, as I think that this matter is very important, to raise this matter on the Motion for the Adjournment but I will raise it on the Local Government Estimate in order to give the Minister further time to go into the matter.
Would the Minister consider the desirability of including the pronunciation of the word mentioned in the question, "Sphygmomanometer," as a test for some of the Fianna Fáil Deputies in substitution of the oath test or will he add it to the test for cases of inebriation? In the first place Deputy Corry would be disqualified, and in the second place many teetotallers would be in grave danger of losing their reputations.
Would Deputy Anthony consider making that speech on a Friday morning?