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EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
406: The number of pages in the Disclosures Tribunal report published this week, that found there was a “campaign of calumny” against Maurice McCabe.
70: The percentage of voters who want Michael D Higgins to be elected as president, according to a Red C poll carried out on behalf of Paddy Power.
75: The percentage of Irish people who want the UK to vote again on whether they should leave the European Union.
27: The number of times Justice Charleton used the word ‘calumny’ in his report on the Disclosures Tribunal.
5,115: The number of incidents reported on the M50 since the beginning of 2017.
5,000: The number of faces that humans can recognise, according to a study by scientists at Britain’s University of York.
5: The number of students that had their Leaving Cert results downgraded in the appeal process this year.
€1.5 billion: The amount of money that is to go into a rainy day fund, according to Budget 2019.
87: The percentage of Northern Ireland’s leave voters that would see the collapse of the peace process as an acceptable price for Brexit.
8: The number of food businesses issued with closure orders in September.
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I’m in my 70’s, on one tablet for under active thyroid, yrs ago prescriptions were for 12 months. I visit my doctor once a year for blood test and new prescription, then I just phone her to send it to pharmacy again in 6 months. As far as I know she gets same amount per year for me as a patient who visits their doctor on a regular basis on a medical card.
@Nancy Gallagher: I’ve never seen a prescription for twelve months and, according to the article, the current maximum is six months. My doctor issued a renewal every six months on request until recently, when I qualified for a GP Visit card. Then I was told that it was the practice to only give a three-month prescription to people with medical cards or GO Visit cards, and to charge €25 per prescription.
@Pat Kelly: Interesting that I can walk into a chemist in Spain and buy my meds without a prescription and in bulk, and I have come home with 6 months supply at roughly have the cost of getting them at home, not to mention the doctor costs. Go figure.
@Pat Kelly: That should have read “roughly half the cost…
@Pat Kelly: Pat, current time is 6 months, quite a few yrs ago it was 12 months. As I am in my 70’s I qualify for medical card so my doctor doesn’t charge me for repeat prescription or blood tests. Pharmacy charge €1 each month for my meds.
@Pat Kelly: ohh pat ur dead right. I get all my meds in Spain and take them home. As I know thousands of others do. I never fill an Irish prescription
@Nancy Gallagher: I am 75 and have a medical card. My GP will only give repeat prescriptions for 3 months, it used to be 6 monthly until I qualified for medical card. Hopefully medical card holders will be eligible for the 12 monthly scripts!
@bridgettyrrell@hotmail.com: hi Bridget, it seems doctors differ. My husband completes repeat prescription form online and his doctor e-mails new prescription direct to pharmacy. You would wonder what the guidelines really are, if you have same symptoms and meds for years then surely once a yr visit should cover you unless your symptoms change, and if you have medical card your doctor is paid.
Is this not just a ploy to empty waiting rooms in surgeries. OK, so people who are stable on their meds might seem a good idea, regular check ups are also necessary for these people. Is it to cut down on paying doctors for treating those on medical cards I wonder?
@Dave Barrett: It’s because the population is getting bigger and the amount of doctors is getting smaller. Hard to recruit from abroad because of housing crisis and cost of living.
@Dave Barrett: A shortage of available GP appointments, I’d say.
@Dave Barrett: What would be wrong with less waiting to see a GP? I’ve known people getting prescriptions via Zoom – the doctor can see them & hear their coughs without them having to go out in the cold.
I don’t mean to sound like a wet blanket, but let’s face it, there are some pretty awful pharmacists out there. So do we have to rely on what mood they’re in on any given day? Plus the list of medicines not applicable to this will probably be longer than the ones that are. I can see major issues ahead :(
@Anna Carr (Morrigan_Dubh): Shop around, find a nice one. There’s no shortage of outlets.
GPs might be livid to lose this handy revenue stream.
@Argus Romsworth:
Hardly, it’s not like they have difficulty finding new patients.
@P.J. Nolan: Thing is they have to mny patients as it is and cannot take on any more.
@Dave Barrett:
Agreed
Pharmacists are not trained diagnosticians.
It’s medical care on the cheap administered by untrained individuals .
@John Ryan:
Get used to it, we don’t have enough doctors
@John Ryan: They are trained. Check out how it works in Spain, as referred to in previous posts above.
While this may be useful, time will tell, in my experience over the past several months is availability to my medications. I’m on a lot of medications, I won’t go into details as it’s not really pertinent, but almost every month at least one, usually more, of my meds are low in stock. The pharmacy have maybe a weeks supply and hope to have more in later. The latest is none for one particular item, it can’t be got anywhere. I’ve heard numerous excuses, this war, that war, Brexit, who knows? So I’m a little sceptical about this latest government plan when there’s a far bigger crisis they’re ignoring.
@Boyne Shark: Agreed, I know some affected by temporary shortages, but in fairness, if the prescription has expired that week while they’re awaiting a delivery, it makes sense to continue the order.
Great move, needs to be implemented BEFORE the winter cold and “flu” season though.
Also all OTC meds need to be taken off prescription, except for chronic cases, using GP appointments and Emergency OOH services for a prescription for Calpol for example is ludicrous!
First line ABs for UTIs, eye infections and minor skin ailments etc should be administer by Pharmacies.
@Nickb: Agree in general. But I imagine it’s not unusual for a feverish person to get confused about the repeat dose they’re taking. Easy to do damage if someone thinks they know what they’re suffering from & goes out and buys something that won’t help or clashes with existing meds. Mind you, my local pharmacists have been brilliant at spotting OTC ingredients that shouldn’t be taken with prescribed meds.
@F Fitzgerald: It’s all on their computer system, drug interactions should not be an issue?
have your say