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.

“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.