Pharmacy Services
Irish pharmacists and their staff play a vital role as primary healthcare providers. There are over 1,500 community pharmacies in the Republic of Ireland. The average person visits a pharmacy in Ireland 23 times a year.
The pharmacist supervises the compounding and dispensing of prescriptions, the supply of medicines and the sale of poisons. Their professional expertise is vital in ensuring that patients’ needs are met with safe and effective treatments.
However, pharmacies provide much more than just a place to dispense prescriptions. They offer services to help manage medication and advice to ensure patients are receiving the most appropriate care for their condition, all without an appointment. Community pharmacies provide an exceptional level of access to healthcare and Ireland has one of the highest number of pharmacies per person in the world.
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DownloadReview of Community Pharmacy in Ireland 2006 (pdf, 2MB) |
How can your Pharmacy help you
Information on Medicines
Your pharmacist is a healthcare professional who can assist you with your health concerns quickly. They can offer you information about treatments, explanations on medication interactions and much more. They will also guide you to other health professionals or community services, if required.
Disease and chronic illness management
Pharmacists in Ireland, in co-operation with GPs, are also able to support you through longer term health issues such as diabetes and asthma. Pharmacists are well placed to assist you to start the process of stopping and support you while you quit. Also many pharmacies in Ireland help to support those recovering from drug addictions by providing essential methadone treatment programmes.
Simple health tests
Some pharmacists provide basic health ‘check-ups’ in the pharmacy. During these consultations they can run several tests on your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. This useful service can provide you with insight into your health, and might highlight levels of risk that you can follow up with your GP.
The Future
In the future, the IPU hopes that the role of the pharmacist will expand even further. We are exploring ways that pharmacists might be able to prescribe for minor ailments. We are also lobbying the government to allow pharmacists to substitute generic, or non-branded prescriptions which can help save you money.
