asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement regarding the reason he has asked the North Western Health Board to allow for a £½ million reduction in the community drugs scheme when the scheme this year cost that health board only £320,000.
Written Answers. - Drugs Expenditure.
184.
The North Western Health Board's total expenditure on community drugs schemes in 1987 will amount to about £820,000. Details of the proposed restructuring of these schemes will be announced shortly.
185.
asked the Minister for Health in view of the £110 million spent on drugs in the public health service last year which represents nine per cent of current expenditure in the services the plans he has to control the use of these drugs.
It is presumed that the Deputy's question refers to the control of Exchequer expenditure on drugs, as opposed to legal controls on the sale and prescribing of drugs. The total cost of drugs to the Exchequer is a function both of unit cost and of total volumes prescribed. There are three main sectors in which these costs arise, namely the GMS scheme, the hospitals sector and the Drugs Refund and Long Term Illness schemes.
Effective unit price control is maintained by an agreement with the Federation of Irish Chemical Industries. The agreement controls the prices of drugs and medicines by close reference to the comparable UK prices. The vast majority of drugs and medicines on the Irish market are imported from the UK.
Participating doctors and pharmacists in the GMS are regularly circulated by the GMS (Payments) Board with detailed information on the relative cost of a standard course of treatment with various alternative versions of the drugs most commonly in use.
The current GMS negotiations with the Irish Medical Organisation have, as one of their primary objectives, the development and promotion within general practice, of a style of medicine which is less reliant upon prescribing.
Drugs and Therapeutics Committees are well established in most general hospitals. The committees pursue policies to rationalise drug use and to realise fully the scope for economies.
As regards the Drugs Refund and LTI schemes, a restructuring of these schemes is under active discussion with the VHI, in the context of the provision by the VHI of a new comprehensive general practitioner and out-patient expenses scheme.