asked the Minister for Health if having regard to the early closing hours of retail pharmacies he will consider recommending the establishment of a central pharmacy dispensing depot to cater for emergency cases arising outside pharmacy hours.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Central Pharmacy Dispensing Depot.
63.
Mr. O'Malley
I gather from the form of the question that what the Deputy has in mind is a depot at which prescriptions for drugs issued by medical practitioners to patients outside the health services could be filled after the normal trading hours of the retail pharmacies. As Minister for Health I have no functions in this matter, but if it were demonstrated to me that there was a need for such a service, I would be prepared to take up the matter with the interests concerned.
There is a definite need for the establishment of such a service. It would be in the interests of people who are ill to have such a depot established.
Mr. O'Malley
The Dublin Health Authority say they have not received any complaints on the lines suggested by the Deputy. The Irish Drug Association, representative of the retail pharmacists, say they have not got any representations to extend the hours of trading. As the Deputy knows, a high percentage of chemists live over their premises and are most co-operative with the public in cases of necessity, or where drugs and medicines are urgently required.
I approached the Irish Drug Association about late opening for some retail pharmacists and I was refused. The experience of a number of people in the city is that there are very few retail pharmacists who live over their shops.
Mr. O'Malley
I might say also that if a drug or medicine cannot be obtained from a pharmacy, a doctor usually carries in his bag certain what I might call basic drugs, with which he can carry the patient overnight in normal circumstances. If, of course, the case is serious, the patient can be admitted to hospital.
It would want to be a very big bag.