PLANS TO HAVE pharmacies across Ireland prescribe medications for common conditions including uncomplicated urinary tract infections, vulvovaginal thrush, cold sores have been delayed. 

The then-Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said in August last year that it was his department’s intention that pharmacies would be providing the service for eight common conditions by the start of 2025. 

Now an implementation oversight group is working towards a date “by the end of 2025″ for delivering the so-called ‘common conditions service’ in pharmacies. 

The Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has made it clear that completing this work this year, and to see pharmacies begin to provide this service within the year is a matter of priority for her. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that an oversight group is currently working to finalise the clinical protocols, education and training for pharmacists, a package of required regulations, and operational aspects of the service. 

The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) warned in August 2024 that there was considerable work to be done before the scope of the work done in pharmacies could be expanded. 

In August of last year Tom Murray, the President of the IPU, said that community pharmacists were effectively being paid less than they were in 2009 and that it was not “acceptable” for the Department to layer on new schemes to an “already underfunded and resourced group of healthcare professionals”. 

A spokesperson for the IPU told The Journal that the move to have pharmacies provide medications for common conditions was on foot of a recommendation of an expert taskforce to expand of the role of pharmacists in Ireland. 

The Minister for Health then set up a community pharmacy expansion implementation oversight group made up of representatives from the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, the IPU, the Health Products Regulatory Authority and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. 

The IPU said that the work of this group is still ongoing with the aim of having all enablers to support the delivery of a common conditions service in place by the year-end. 

Pharmacies have been able to prescribe for common conditions like UTIs, which often see women in particular requiring antibiotics, since 2023 in Northern Ireland.

The original taskforce was established in July 2023, consisting of 13 experts who represented many of the main stakeholders involved, and it delivered its final report in August 2024. 

Its report said that pharmacies should be able to prescribe for allergic rhinitis, cold sores, conjunctivitis, impetigo, oral thrush, shingles, uncomplicated UTIs and vulvovaginal thrush.

The then-Minister for Health said that the move would alleviate pressure on GPs – one of the key aims of the Sláintecare health reform strategy. 

It would also potentially see a lesser cost attached to treating common health conditions, including those that can impact some women and men on a recurring basis, such as UTIs and thrush.