Nicola Stapleton

I'm a "GP" not a "service provider" I dont have "service users" or "clients" I have patients, that I care for, and about THAT makes all the difference @ICGPnews @paulreiddublin @roinnslainte @ritakj @SimonHarrisTD @susmitchellSBP @willieodeaLIVE @DonnellyStephen @slaintecare

@andycoon46 @JohnJCarvill @MichealMartinTD Ps I'd be surprised if pharmacists are using the phased dispensing scheme for the majority of their blister packs. In my professional experience, they are not, and are generally providing this service without charge.

That widespread "workaround" became the norm for years without mass retrospective punishments for most pharmacies as it was more like a tolerated grey area until the new 2025 agreement which explicitly tightens the rules from Jan 2026 onward (limiting phased reimbursements to specific high-risk meds only). No one is disputing it's not ideal for pharmacists either (they're losing that funding stream), but the real hit lands on vulnerable patients - elderly, disabled, dementia sufferers who relied on it being free or subsidised. Many carers literally cannot administer meds unless they are blistered, and now families might face €10-50/week charges.

In a sneaky way the government has withdrawn payments for blister packing of prescription medicines for old and vulnerable patients. No ESB help, a pension increase below the cost of living and now this. All while @MichealMartinTD announces more and more hundreds of millions being given away to Ukrainian Oligarchs.

@andycoon46 @JohnJCarvill @MichealMartinTD Any pharmacy using that "work around" could be liable to have the fees for that dispensing retrospectively removed. It was very clear from the contract that this was not covered. It's not a good situation for either patients or pharmacists but that's the reality.

You're technically right that blister packs were never officially reimbursed by the HSE - they were covered via a phased dispensing workaround that many vulnerable patients relied on for free/subsidised access. From Jan 2026, that's being restricted under the new pharmacy agreement, so pharmacies will likely charge (€5-50/week in some cases). It feels like a cut for elderly and disabled people who need them to avoid med errors. Frustrating when the Irish government finds hundreds of millions for Ukraine aid (fair enough, it's a war), but gets thrifty on supports for our own indigenous vulnerable. Priorities seem just a bit off sometimes.

@JohnJCarvill @MichealMartinTD Blister packing was never covered by that scheme . There has been a high court case that prosecuted pharmacies for incorrectly using this scheme. What you are saying is not true. I have dealt with this issue on many occasions. Blister packing is not phased dispensing.

It’s quite clear that there was a phased dispensing work around being used by pharmacists to cover blister packing. It paid the cost for many elderly and vulnerable patients who can’t remember whether they took medication, which ones etc. The HSE recently blocked this work around. I know several elderly people living on the meagre state pension for whom the charge now being made by pharmacists is another hardship.

@JohnJCarvill @MichealMartinTD Unequivocally not.

@dr_stapleton @MichealMartinTD The HSE, which is a government agency, has.

"My parents have been married for 75 years but few have noticed. Most of their friends have died. I contacted 6 local news stations and the Union Tribune newspaper giving details so they could do a story on their lives. Not one response from anyone. I think living into your 90's and staying married 75 years is quite an accomplishment. If you agree, please like and share my post. I want to show them people do care." Credit Eileen Atkinson

If this is the Presidential ballot, who will you vote for? Please repost to get as large a sample as possible.

@fallingstarvs .

POV: Your Stationery Shop Is Everyone’s Fav Spot🧸 - an interactive thread

Limerick is full of retailers, venues, restaurants, cafés, traders. I'm so tired of hearing that there's nothing in Limerick. We are talking ourselves out of business and encouraging people to shop online. This needs to stop, it's helping no one and in fact is quite destructive..

This moment happened at the Limerick City constituency candidates debate at UL yesterday. @melanie_cleary8 of @CampaignMWHC proves herself to be a towering figure against the parties that brought UHL to its knees @TippFM @NenaghGuardian @tippmidwest @Nenaghman @niamhgriffin

This B/H Weekend we hope you will be safe on the roads, in the water and out enjoying the time. We would prefer not to see you ! but if you do need us we are there. Our hospitals are busy so please use the option that best meets your needs. There are many. Please open the right door. Have a good safe weekend from @HSELive @roinnslainte @roinnslainte @DonnellyStephen

Privilege I had just last Week 17th to share a platform on Health (EU CBD) with Tommie Gorman. An outstanding journalist, moderator and health advocate. RIP @rtenews @HSELive @DonnellyStephen @roinnslainte

Interesting fact: Narcissists/psychopaths/coercive controllers have ‘manipulative intelligence’. 1.They are able to engage innocent people to take actions to fulfil their goals without these innocent people knowing they are complicit in hurting and disadvantaging others. 2.They have differences of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex and amygdala, so they don’t get nervous. They can calmly look people in the eye and convince them that black is white and white is black. 3.They form elaborate plans to destroy their targets including public provocation, using false narrative to engage others to support their views, pleading the victim, saying that the bad deeds they did were done by their target.

You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes. I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others. I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to. Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib. Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class. Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people. I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation. I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.

Repugnant, misinformed, ageist hate-speak promoting euthanasia for us as we age ".. the ruinously expensive overhang that dare not speak its name: old age and infirmity?" thetimes.co.uk/article/we-can… - @ageukcampaigns @GeriSoc @britgerontology @med_indonews @IMT_latest @RCPI_news

« Her only known diagnoses described in court earlier this month are autism and ADHD » How many red flags need to wave to show that legalising euthanasia, assisted suicide & assisted dying, while it may support the autonomy of some causes significant societal harm?

I cannot support this proposal to introduce euthanasia to Ireland for many reasons but the absence of due process is striking. This initiative is neither contained in the Programme for Government agreed between the three governing parties nor in my party @FineGael manifesto.

Stalking may not always appear to everyone else as stalking, but if you experience these four main characteristics of stalking you may be a victim of this crime. If you are unsure tell someone you trust and seek support. #SpeakOutAgainstStalking

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) notes the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying. RCPI opposes the introduction of any legislation supportive of assisted suicide because it is contrary to best medical practice. rcpi.ie/News/statement… 1/

Notable (and troubling) that no potential conflicts of interest volunteered, in particular of being a supporter of euthanasia/assisted suicide, at any of the meetings of the Ethics Committee @MedCouncil which led to the dropping of the stricture on euthanasia by the Council