Chemical body warns blood drug Apixaban is the latest drug to be unavailable in NI and needs urgent funding

Community Pharmacists NI (CPNI) have pressed their call for the Department of Health (DoH) to fix funding arrangements and say the current situation is causing thousands of pounds to be lost every month on many essential medicines. provided at a loss.

The cost of a number of medicines has risen in recent weeks including the price of the generic drug Apixaban – used to prevent blood clots – which now costs £36 a pack.

But currently the DoH is paying the pharmacy between £2.21 – £2.48 per pack, which is causing a huge gap in the company’s finances.

CPNI chief executive Gerard Greene said: “We’ve been fighting for basic drug prices to be affordable for a very long time, it’s a simple principle of fairness.

“It is not the case that community pharmacy owners are expected to fund Northern Ireland’s medicines out of their own pockets.

“We know very well that community pharmacy owners have had to borrow money from family members to meet pharmacists’ debts and earlier this year the UK pharmacists’ trade union warned that medicines public sector are struggling to pay their huge debts.

“For the world’s first health service this is a sad state of affairs.”

The CPNI said the department had temporarily increased the price of these medicines to £14.99 on the last day of August before returning the lower prices on September 1 and warned that there were usually around 150 lines of medicines affected. each month it says “both unfair. and unstable”.

The group said it had been raising issues with drug payment arrangements “for years” and insisted “it’s time for a fair contract for drug owners” during a meeting with Stormont’s new health minister Mike Nesbitt .

It follows the closure of 15 community pharmacies in the past 20 months which the CPNI said was “evidence that these businesses are becoming unsustainable” under the current funding arrangements – more drugs two closed permanently at the end of last month.

Mr Greene said he had identified “two key questions”.

“Firstly, a quick injection of cash to help community pharmacies pay their drug bills, and secondly, a long-term solution in the form of a special Northern Ireland drug charge that meets the needs of the network “The modern form of public pharmacy, which allows it to take a large part in public health care,” he said.

“What we keep hearing is that there is no money, however if primary care and community pharmacy were to be fixed, community pharmacy could provide solutions to many of the problems facing our services. of life.

“Community pharmacies provide local healthcare services, located in every town and village across Northern Ireland. We can help prevent people from going into hospital . We can help deal with the problem of General Practice. Community pharmacy is a ready-to-use solution if the will and the resources are there.”

The Department of Health said that the remuneration rates are set in the Northern Ireland Drug Tax including reimbursement rates for prescribed medicines.

“The prices of medicines change every day, and it is not useful to pay public pharmacies the exact amount they have paid to buy everything that is given against a doctor’s prescription HSC, which exceeded 45 million items by 2023/24,” said the spokesperson.

“Therefore, at the individual product level, community pharmacies may sometimes be reimbursed less than what they paid for the product. However, they may also be reimbursed at a higher rate. higher than what is paid.”

The spokesman of the department also said that the annual margin survey is completed to ensure that, on average, the reimbursement arrangements for the community pharmacy cover the cost of purchasing medicines as well as the guaranteed level of margin (profit maintained) which means that providing HSC should be a profitable activity. in general.

“In 2024/25 this will be £31.5m, up from £26.5m in 2023/24,” they added.

“The online pharmacy system encourages fair pricing by pharmacies, provides value for money for HSC, while ensuring that pharmacists are remunerated for their services.”

Regarding the additional funding, the DoH said the Minister of Health recently met with the CPNI to confirm the department’s commitment to support the pharmaceutical sector.

“This includes evidence that the Department wants to continue with the new participation arrangements. This is in addition to the additional investment that has already been given to the public pharmacy department,” the spokesperson said.

“Against a backdrop of severe financial pressures and significant additional funding needs across all areas of health and social care, it was agreed that community pharmacy will receive an opening budget of £147m – an increase of £19m compared to the opening position in April 2023.

“This increased allocation supports the delivery of community pharmacy services in line with the commission’s 2022-2025 strategy, developed by the Department working in partnership with Community Pharmacy NI and through which community pharmacies are delivered to provide services.

“The department continues to face severe funding pressures and has a funding gap of around £340m, for which the NI Executive has indicated there is no additional funding, and departments’ everyone is asked to give success.”