\u201cIt was a source of disappointment to me – and I think to people generally who had concluded the agreement – that there was a reaction by some pharmacists who were purporting to now introduce a charge for blister packs where they hadn’t before,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they were aligning that change to the new agreement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fine Gael TD said that some pharmacists previously erroneously charged taxpayers for dispensing blister packs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust for people to be aware, we have reached a number of settlements over the last number of years with pharmacists who were inappropriately claiming under that scheme,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can give you an example, charging the State for phase dispensing over seven days where they were only open for six days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Minister Carroll MacNeill added that she took issue with the manner in which some pharmacists had portrayed the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the real extraordinary thing is the dialogue was this was a cut by the Government or this was a fee cut,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be really clear; this was a wrong use of funds and we have tightened it up and clarified it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that we can use that money, tens of millions of euros a year for other things, for the benefit of patients.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"M9NBGJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/M9NBGJ.jpg\")
Blister Packs. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n
The Health Minister continued that the agreement will not mean the end of blister packs for those who need them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to give a medicines optimisation fee on a per patient basis so that pharmacists have a fee to look after that patient,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, that the pharmacist will use their clinical judgment as to what best does that does that patient need?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo they need weekly or daily dispensing? Do they need additional supports? One of those might be a blister pack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Main image: Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Picture by: Newstalk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has said that patients who previously received blister packs free of charge will continue to do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-577243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}