By Used2bSnowwhite
‘This is very unfair, I’ll have to wait until next year to buy my upgrade Rolex’, said a downtrodden Irish GP twiddling his bowtie and waving his placard outside Boots pharmacy. The Irish GP was a representative of minority group, ‘Irish Doctors looking to keep inflated fees’, and were fighting for their rights outside Boots pharmacy chain.
Abortion may not be legal in Ireland but at least with UK Pharmacy chain Boots, the option for women to obtain the MAP (morning-after-pill) has just gotten easier and safer.
Ireland is a backwards country so stringent that obtaining emergency contraception, for example, on a Sunday is a nightmare between running around finding a GP’s surgery that is actually open, paying 60 euros and then forking another €10.00 for the pill at the pharmacy. Stressful, expensive and never mind that an Irish doctor can refuse you the morning-after-pill on ‘moral’ grounds which was a recent case in Co Kerry last year.
One friend of mine living in Cobh four years ago went to the local GP for the morning-after pill only to be criticised for her request. He subsequently started lecturing her on her morals and that she should go on her knees to pray. Instead of his listening to the rest of the lecture she fled the surgery only to have to travel to Cork city, a distance of 25 km and she was lucky she had her own car unlike a lot of young women in rural areas.
Sure, ‘tis a hard life for Irish doctors, you know, the average salary can be €220,000.00 *and upwards per year. One can only imagine the impact the loss of these essential prescription fees on their lives and hopefully they will be well-compensated for this. They could for example, start off with a letter-writing campaign with Amnesty International, twitter updates, an online petition and a boycott against ‘2 for 1’ products in Boots, etc.
The Irish state continues to ignore the dangers they create for its citizens with its hypocritical and backward nature regarding contraception and especially abortion. A few years ago, reports were released that found the black market version of mifepristone or RU-486 was seized by gardai in Dublin and the confiscation by the IMB (Irish Medicines Board) of the abortion pill. When women are desperate enough to try unsafe medicine the pressure should be put on the Department of Health to ensure safe access to medicine. Now the MAP initiative has come into force through a legal loophole that the Health service knew about for years. Boots are now able to dispense prescription-only medications once they have the direction of a GP to do so and this came from Boots own medical director, a GP. Boots being the corporation will ignore the hissing of general practitioners and legal warnings of the incumbent Dept of Health who could have allowed such a simple practice to take place years ago.
Dr Mel Bates of the group, Irish College of General Practitioners huffed about the new regulation saying:
“My concern is that the company is cherry picking those who know they probably are not pregnant. In the GP setting, we make them aware that the morning-after pill may be unnecessary in their cases and then they make their own decision."
Em, what? Do the GPS have a crystal ball that tells you within 72 hours whether you are pregnant without taking the MAP? I don’t remember reading about that scientific breakthrough. How on earth do GPS make them aware that it’s unnecessary?
Surely the only way you are not pregnant is if you haven’t had sexual intercourse but otherwise if you have had unprotected sex, the condom broke etc; it’s a good precaution to buy the MAP.
Boots reasonable answer to the doctor’s representative was that: they have a private consultation room to discuss safe sex, contraception and prevention against STI’s; it’ll be a service similar to the GP’s; less stressful and more affordable. Simply, the same service but without having to pay two qualified medical professionals for the same medicine. And really how many weekends would you like to spend your time with a pharmacist explaining the obvious?
Listening to another reason for keeping the MAP’s fees with General Practioners, the doctor from the ICGP was this:
“The moment you increase access to any service, you increase demand for it”.
Well I did pop into the local Boots after hearing the riot news but there was no clamouring of wanton women climbing over the counter, running off with the pill and running after every man they could find. There was a queue for a very good deal on make-up palettes and perfumes though.
In wake of the UK chain’s announcement the IPU (Irish Pharmacy Union) have agreed that other pharmacies should follow suit which is good news for women in rural areas. Even though Boots and other pharmacies have stated they are making it affordable the cost of the pill here will be €45.00 as opposed to £24.99 in the six counties. The cost of contraception in the land of backwardness is still the highest in Europe.
Meanwhile back at the protest with the minority group, ‘Doctors for over-inflated fees…’
• Figures based on GP salaries income from medical card holders’ fees released from the HSE 2009.
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