Blister packs essential for those caring for older and vulnerable people - Leitrim comment

The government will continue funding phased dispensing and blister packs, provided a pharmacist deems the service to be clinically necessary for the patient. 

The announcement comes after a decision to withdraw State funding from January for the services provided by pharmacies was delayed following backlash from patients and pharmacists and politicians, including Leitrim councillor Gary Prior. 

At a meeting back in January, Cllr Prior called on Leitrim County Council to ask Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to "reverse or amend these changes to ensure continued state support for necessary blister pack medication services, and to safeguard older people, people with disabilities and others dependent on these aids from financial hardship."

Cllr Gary Prior said at the time that he greatly disagreed with the decision to implement charges of up to €50 for the service: "This is a matter of patient safety and no one should be asked to pay to simply take their medication safely."

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Blister packs – or ‘monitored dosing systems’ – separate doses into bubbles, typically holding one day’s worth of medication in each, making it easier for people to know what they’ve taken.

Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Cllr Prior said: "It was a huge concern to many people. After the motion I put forward in January, a number of people came to me after that, mainly carers and family members. You could have a case where there would be an evening call and a morning call and different carers coming in and they don't know what medication the person has taken so the blister pack was a huge advantage and there in front of them - the morning and evening tablets."

He stressed that patients suffering with dementia were particularly susceptible to mixing up tablets. "At least with a blister pack, it shows exactly when the tablets were taken."

Now, under the new system, the Community Pharmacy Agreement, pharmacists will be able to provide the services free of charge to those “who genuinely need them”, a spokesperson from the Department of Health said today.

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Cllr Prior said that Medical Card or GP Visit Card holders who were getting free phased dispensing or a blister pack will continue to receive those supports free of charge. "I was in a home where there was a disabled child and the mother took the blister packs from the press and showed me the amount of them. She was very worried about having to pay another €50 on top of everything else; rising fuel; day to day bills. It's a real relief it's been shelved."

The government has also committed to a monthly payment of €32.50 from June 2026 onwards for other patients who clinically require their medicines to be dispensed more frequently, but are not entitled to a free service.