{"id":439664,"date":"2026-05-22T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439664\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:48:08","slug":"pharmacists-cant-afford-to-keep-providing-blister-packs-of-tablets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439664\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmacists ‘can’t afford’ to keep providing blister packs of tablets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smyth pointed out that in some cases, people don’t have family.<\/p>\n

“So what’s the answer? The answer to me is quite simple. Maintain the blister packs.”<\/p>\n

He understands that they can be expensive for pharmacists to prepare but said “someone needs to find the money” to fund the service.<\/p>\n

“That’s the safest option. That’s the best option. It’s the option that families want. It’s the option that care companies want.”<\/p>\n

Linda Robinson, the chief executive of Age NI – a charity for older people – said blister packs were a simple way to manage risk when it came to people’s health.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really good service. I see it in action every day and I see and hear the benefits of it,” she told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think it should be protected and it should be extended out to those that need it.”<\/p>\n

Community Pharmacy NI – which represents the industry here – said “the priority for pharmacy teams will always be to maintain this service to existing patients, where appropriate, and to continue doing this in a safe way”.<\/p>\n

It added: “Pharmacies will carefully weigh up several factors including convenience, need, patient safety, pharmacy procedures and other medicines-taking support options that exist when dealing with any new requests.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smyth pointed out that in some cases, people don’t have family. “So what’s the answer? The answer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-439664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}