Michael McCarthy, a consultant medical oncologist at Galway’s University Hospital, reveals that he must sometimes provide his publicly funded cancer patients with a treatment he regards as inferior, even though a superior alternative is accessible to privately insured individuals in Ireland. He remarks that this imbalance in access to top-tier medical treatments has been increasingly evident over the last year. This situation arose as private health insurance companies agreed to cover these treatments for their Irish beneficiaries once its approval was sanctioned by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This often happened even before it was generally available in Ireland.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (Ipha), McCarthy stated that the question of whether a patient had insurance or not had recently become more critical. In his role within the public health system, he realised he may need to ask patients about their insurance because of this access disparity. He knows that insured individuals could receive superior EMA-licensed treatments in private hospitals.
Without insurance, patients may have access to only the subpar treatment options. This issue causes frustration for both McCarthy and his patients. It’s worth noting that approximately half of Ireland’s populace lacks private health insurance.
When questioned if insured patients have a better prognosis due to access to private medical treatment, McCarthy confirmed that this was the case, emphasizing it as a novel situation within the HSE.
A public patient’s treatment protocol, such as a cytotoxic chemotherapy regimen, might cost a few hundred euros, he remarked. In contrast, treatments in the private healthcare system can run into hundreds of thousands of euros.
Caitriona Duggan, Head of Amgen country, who was also on the conference panel, stated that drug manufacturers do not welcome a situation where treatment accessibility disparity is one of the foundational elements within the national Sláintecare reform programme.
“It isn’t feasible for us to invest billions in creating drugs, only to be incapable of advancing them through the necessary procedures,” she declared. Ms Duggan mentioned that slightly over 25% of medicines originated by Ipha’s associates never attain approval in the Irish system, articulating the necessity for a resolution.
Mr Donnelly had previously indicated his plan to allocate funding for this year’s budget towards an additional 34 full-time roles within drug reimbursement agencies. This decision was in line with suggestions from a working group that examined a report by Mazars last year about the Irish drug approval method.
“The acceleration of medication approval as a result of this will have a considerable effect. This in turn will lead to an increase in new drug applications”, he mentioned.
The Irish health system allocated €3.2 billion – one €1 of every €8 – to medicines, according to Donnelly. Even though no budget was assigned for new medicines last year, the Minister conveyed his success of sourcing €30 million to suffice the expense of newly approved drugs, including a €10 million saving from the HSE budget.
Donnelly affirmed that the State had authorised 36 novel drugs or new denotations for existing medications the previous year.
In his later speech, Sinn Féin health speaker David Cullinane expressed his irritation that a nation excelling in drug production and innovation is not leading in terms of accessibility compared to other European countries.
New workforce contributions will definitely assist, he added, and acknowledged that the Minister was undoubtedly identifying the issues within the system. However, he stated, “The funding element is the key concern for me.” He vowed, if he were elected as health minister, to implement a system providing multi-year funding for new medicines.
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