Parents of teenage girls will be relieved to hear steps are being taken by a local pharmacy to ensure that their daughters will have access to the much-debated cervical cancer vaccine at a reduced price in the coming months.
Frustrated at the prohibitive cost for the majority of parents, Athlone pharmacist Philip McGorisk recently undertook to stock and supply the vaccine at the cost price of approximately €140 per injection.
While a course of three injections is necessary over a six month period, the total will now amount to just over €400 - significantly less than the usual cost of €640 which many parents have said they simply cannot afford.
McGorisks Pharmacies have been liaising with GPs in Athlone to address these concerns, and are currently supplying the vaccine to at-risk groups, girls between the ages of 12 and 25, on a non-profit basis.
“We are doing this as a gesture of goodwill, and because many find the cost prohibitive, we are taking no fee for dispensing the vaccines,” explained Mr McGorisk. “We have spoken to doctors and they did not want the programme to be stopped.”
The cervical cancer vaccine has been heavily debated recently. Parents and young women were angered by the Government’s decision to renege on its deal for the cervical cancer vaccination programme due to budgetary reasons.
Concerns were also expressed by the Irish Family Planning Association and the Irish Cancer Society on the failure to implement the vaccination programme.
The McGorisks initiative follows the decision of a number of GPs in the Dublin area to administer the vaccine at reduced costs.
