St Joseph’s Hospital in Stranorlar has found itself at the eye of the storm in the dispute between the HSE and pharmacists after a contingency dispensary was established in the hospital.

St Joseph’s has had to send prescriptions from the Stranorlar dispensary to Inishowen patients living over 100km away. Prescriptions were faxed into the centre from Carndonagh Community Hospital and sent by taxi from Stranorlar in recent days. There were angry scenes in Carndonagh this week as patients waited for prescriptions, which didn’t arrive in some cases.

The hospital is one of three centres that have been dispensing medication since Donegal pharmacists withdrew from the state-run drug schemes. The dispute between the HSE and pharmacists showed no sign of abating this week.

The HSE has accused pharmacists of running a “concerted campaign” to “inflict maximum hardship and inconvenience on their communities to further their cause.” The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has insisted that it is open to negotiations with the HSE but said that pharmacists cannot operate the community drugs scheme at the rates they are being offered.

Earlier in the week, the HSE alleged that staff at St Joseph’s had suffered intimidation at the centre. In a statement, it said “Our understanding is that it was not members of the public that were responsible for intimidatory behaviour, it was pharmacists.”

The IPU dismissed the allegations as unfounded. Rory O’Donnell of the IPU said that the union was opposed to using any form of intimidation.

“The Union has already stated that it would not condone that sort of action. Nobody should be intimidated at work.”