Vol. 418 No. 4
144 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on a recent report published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Union that there has been a considerable rise in the number of forgeries of general practice prescriptions being reported around the country; and the steps he proposes to take in order to eliminate this abuse.
I have established that no such report was recently published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Union. Presumably the Deputy is referring to a recent article in a medical publication, following on a conversation between a journalist and the Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.
I have had inquiries made from the society in the matter. The society expresses disagreement with the statements in the report and finds it inaccurate in a number of respects.
The position is that each month the society advises pharmacists of forgeries or suspected forged prescriptions in the Irish Pharmacy Journal. In recent months, the number of reports has increased from perhaps one each month to two or three a month. While it is not considered that this is a considerable rise, as stated in the question, every effort continues to be made to eliminate such abuse as exists.
