To consider a request from Mr. Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI, to address the Council in relation to the motion on Community Pharmacies being proposed by Alderman Copeland.
Minutes:
The Chief Executive reported that requests had been received from Mr. Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI, and from Ms. Louise Kennedy, Regional Policy and Information Co-ordinator, Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland, to address the Council in advance of the motions being proposed by Alderman Copeland and Councillor Lyons respectively.
The Council acceded to the requests.
Community Pharmacy NI
Mr. Greene informed the Council that Community Pharmacy NI represented community pharmacy owners in their dealings with the Health and Social Care Board and the Department of Health. He explained that there were 532 community pharmacies delivering healthcare across Northern Ireland currently and that they were visited on approximately thirty-five million occasions and dispensed around forty million prescription items annually. The number of visits were, he pointed out, significantly higher than for GP practices. He referred to a number of independent reviews which had supported an enhanced role for community pharmacies and proceeded to outline the significant financial difficulties which pharmacies were facing, due to chronic underfunding by the Department of Health, which had the potential to affect the quality of services and lead to closures.
Mr. Greene confirmed that community pharmacies had, for a number of years, failed to have their costs met and had essentially been subsidising their service. He drew the Council’s attention to the fact that the Department of Health had, in February, confirmed that £11 million had been allocated to community pharmacies over a two-year period. This, he stressed, was insufficient, given that there had already been a £20 million reduction in funding in the current year and was occurring at a time when workloads were increasing and the workforce was reducing. He pointed out that the results of a survey which had been undertaken across community pharmacies had reflected the seriousness of the funding situation and he highlighted the need to invest in the community pharmacy network to enable it to provide, for example, public health and preventative services and targeted screening and health checks, which would assist in alleviating the burden on GP practices and make it comparable with the rest of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Greene concluded by inviting the Council to support Alderman Copeland’s motion and was thanked by the Lord Mayor.
Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland
Ms. Kennedy reported that Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland was a voluntary agency which supported women, men and children who were affected by domestic and sexual violence. She provided details around the annual sixteen days of activism, which had been established to commemorate the murder in 1989 of fourteen women in École Polytechnique in Ontario, Canada, which ran from ‘White Ribbon Day’ on 25th November to Human Rights Day on 10th December, and pointed out that it was an opportunity to remember also other victims of misogyny and of domestic violence, sexual assault etc.
She pointed out that, whilst men were also subjected to domestic and sexual violence, it was an inescapable fact that women made up the majority of victims and, particularly in extreme cases, where there was a threat to life. She explained that, last year, two women per week had been killed by a man in the United Kingdom and that, in Northern Ireland, 717 women and 485 children had stayed in women’s refuges due to concerns for their safety. A further 258 women could not gain access a refuge due to a lack of accommodation.
Ms. Kennedy then referred to the review which had been undertaken by Sir John Gillen around sexual violence and the criminal justice system and confirmed that its outcome was welcomed by Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland, which hoped that it would lead to a marked change in the way in which sexual violence trials operated in the future. She pointed out that Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland would be submitting a robust response to the public consultation and concluded by urging Members to engage fully in that process by supporting Councillor Lyons’ motion.
Ms. Kennedy was thanked by the Lord Mayor.