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budget 2025
Free HRT available from January but women will still pay GP and dispensing fees, says minister
Donnelly predicts there could be supply issues with the rollout of free HRT.
8.05pm, 2 Oct 2024
30.9k
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WOMEN AVAILING OF free Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) will still have to pay for their GP visit and dispensing fee to the pharmacist, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed.
With €20 million in budget funding, HRT products will be free for all women who have a prescription from their doctor from January.
HRT is free for holders of medical cards but otherwise can cost in the region of €30 to €70 a month.
Asked about the new measure at a press conference today in Government Buildings, Donnelly said he had two options available to him.
“One was that we would cover all costs but if we did that we would not be able to make it available to all women. The full cost of the medicine be covered.
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“I listened to a lot of people about this and universally what I heard back was make it available to everyone,” said the minister.
He added that enabling legislation is required for the rollout, but the minister said he had legal advice that he could proceed with the measure on an administrative basis.
“So if there happens to be an election in the next few weeks, and if it took a little bit of time to form a government, we do not need new legislation,” he added.
He said pharmacists will no doubt want to charge an administrative or prescription fee, stating that pharmacists get their profit margin from the product that they sell.
“We’re essentially making the product free,” he said.
Removing existing fees to GPs and pharmacists would need to be negotiated with the unions and would take time, with the minister stating he wanted to expedite the rollout.
“In the budget next year, if I am here or somebody else is here, they could well say we want to cover GP fees or pharmacy fees,” he added.
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In an interview with The Journal in August, Donnelly acknowledged that he expects there to be supply issues when free HRT is available.
Last year, a shortage in HRT patches caused significant issues for doctors, patients and pharmacists around the country.
In some cases pharmacists have had to manipulate patient doses, as certain strengths have become particularly scarce.
The minister said he’s been told by officials that there could be a significant constraint on supply that that will have to be managed.
“There’s a worldwide shortage. There was a big uptake in patches rather than other approaches. So I have no doubt that when we do this, supply is going to be something that we’ll have to work on,” he added.
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When was it alive. I think Irish people have a great sense of humour, but it never seems to translate onto the screen particularly well. What was the last great comedy produced in Ireland?
Personally I think the problem with comedy tv and tv in general in Ireland is they tend to look at what Americans people do and then copy it, the end result is a cringeworthy production of Irish acting like Americans but throwing in the odd phrase like “craic” or “notions” in an feeble attempt to hide what they’re doing.
They’re so used to seeing Americans and to a degree British people on TV that Irish actors and writers don’t seem to know how to portray actual Irish people on TV.
Red rock deserves all the nominations it is very well put together and if the bbc bought it and it is going to be on Netflix it can’t be all that bad don’t see any of rte soaps doing good the same
Fair play to them. Although I generally hate all soaps, it does seem to be of a higher quality than the rest. Having said that, if it was the only thing on I’d turn the tv off.
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