asked the Minister for Health if, in view of the additional expense to the Exchequer which it involves and in view of the serious inconvenience to patients, he will change the practice whereby all general medical service patients leaving any hospital with a prescription must consult their own doctor to have the prescription copied out on a special form before they can have their prescription dispensed by a pharmacist.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dispensing of Prescriptions.
7.
The practice whereby a GMS patient brings a hospital prescription to his GMS doctor before obtaining medicines arose from the need for controls. From a medical point of view it is not recommended that different doctors should be prescribing for the same patient at the same time. The practice ensures that the general practitioner is familiar with the patient's total drug regimen. There is also the question of control over the prescribing by hospital and family doctors. Nevertheless, I feel that this is a subject which should be discussed by the working party now looking at the GMS and I am asking them to do so.