{"id":12134,"date":"2025-04-15T16:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=12134"},"modified":"2025-04-15T16:49:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:49:44","slug":"minister-must-work-constructively-with-pharmacists-to-ensure-roll-out-of-free-hrt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/minister-must-work-constructively-with-pharmacists-to-ensure-roll-out-of-free-hrt\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister must work constructively with pharmacists to ensure roll-out of free HRT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice has welcomed the Minister for Health\u2019s acceptance that a dispensing fee should be covered as part of the delayed free HRT scheme \u2013 but has criticised the government\u2019s questionable handling of the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the Minister setting a target today for a June 1 starting date for the roll-out of free HRT, there is still major uncertainty about pharmacy participation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNegotiating with pharmacies over the airwaves \u2013 as she appeared to be doing today \u2013 is no way to do business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister must work constructively with community pharmacists to ensure that they can participate in the scheme, and that free HRT is available and accessible to all who need it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government must also strongly consider reimbursing women for any HRT costs they have incurred since the scheme\u2019s originally intended start date of January 1, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>April 15, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice has welcomed the Minister for Health\u2019s acceptance that a dispensing fee should be covered as part of the delayed free HRT scheme \u2013 but has criticised the government\u2019s questionable handling of the issue. Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said: \u201cDespite the Minister setting a target today for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,642,7,501],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release","category-womens-healthcare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health Minister must work constructively with pharmacists to ensure roll-out of free HRT - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/minister-must-work-constructively-with-pharmacists-to-ensure-roll-out-of-free-hrt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Minister must work constructively with pharmacists to ensure roll-out of free HRT - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice has welcomed the Minister for Health\u2019s acceptance that a dispensing fee should be covered as part of the delayed free HRT scheme \u2013 but has criticised the government\u2019s questionable handling of the issue. 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