Patient and Public Dialogue
Access to Medicines Ireland hold Patient/Public Engagement Meeting to discuss the issue of lack of access to medicines for health service users in Ireland.
We are interested in exploring the underlying causes that connect all of the various issues experienced by people trying to gain access to medicines, issues such as:
● Why are medicines that might reduce pain and disability, or improve quality of life, so eye wateringly expensive that the HSE cannot afford to reimburse them?
● Why do patients have to wait years for access to new effective medicines for cancer?
● Why is there a lack of Research & Development (R&D) to support new treatments for rare diseases?
● Why are many vulnerable people, especially healthcare workers in low income countries, still not able to get a COVID-19 vaccine?
● Why is there a lack of R&D to deal with superbugs resistant to current antibiotic therapy? Why is this a silent pandemic that is a danger to all?
This meeting provided an opportunity to bring people together and listen to each other. Through sharing different experiences of the issue, we aim to facilitate learning between all participants and build connections in this space in Ireland.
Full report to come…