An Oireachtas Briefing Session on the impact of the withdrawal of Versatis pain relief patches will be held in the AV Room of Leinster House this Thursday 15th February at 10.00am. This follows on from my raising the issue in the Seanad and the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee. I will chair the session which includes speakers from Chronic Pain Ireland, Arthritis Ireland and patients with direct experience of using the patches.
This issue affects up to 25,000 people from right across the state.
Some of the issues:
- Failure to listen to and respond to patients voices’ detailing their human suffering and the effectiveness of Versatis in treating their chronic pain.
- It adversely affects low income patients in chronic pain – this means that if you have the money you don’t have the pain but if you don’t have the money you either have to go on morphine patches or take drugs that do not manage the pain effectively.
- It undermines the Consultant/GP/patient relationship by introducing a secondary layer of approval. (no indication was given to GP’s on how to take patients off the drug safely).
- We have no evidence that the manufacturer of Versatis was approached by the HSE to reduce the cost of the patches
- It is unclear as to whether a cost benefit analysis was carried out before the decision was made. Additional costs of alternative medicine, treatment, hospitalisation, home care packages/home help hours and anti-depressants need to be taken into account. As well as loss of working hours, social isolation and exclusion.
We are seeking reversal of the decision to withdraw Versatis from the Medical Card Scheme and the Drug Payment Scheme until such time as these issues have been addressed.
