Talks soon on new criteria for pharmacy licences

The health ministry is soon expected to communicate its conclusions to the joint committee responsible for drawing up the report into the new criteria for pharmacy licences, minister Louis Deguara said.

The committee, made up of the Association of General Retailers and Traders, the Chamber of Pharmacists and the government was set up in October 1998 to draft a document.

This document was presented to the government in 1999 and the GRTU and the Chamber have expressed concern that four years later the government had not yet met with them to discuss proposals.

In its fortnightly publication NewString, the GRTU said that in 1998 the GRTU had signed an agreement with the ministry, yet four years on, the agreement still awaited full implementation by the government.

The publication wrote that the agreement established the following three points:

¤ the procedure for issuing new pharmacy licences.

¤ the system to be used to determine the appropriate number and spread of pharmacies, so that the consumer in the community is better served.

¤ the arrangements and compensation to be paid to pharmacy owners for the distribution of free medicine to those entitled through private pharmacies in the community.

The Chamber, too, has been awaiting a reply from the government on the document which delves into these three issues and its president, Maryanne Sant Fournier said it was unbelievable that the government had not yet commented.

"As a committee we had worked in harmony and with true partnership. The report we had presented looked to the future keeping in mind the eventuality of possible EU membership," said Ms Sant Fournier.

"In my mind no news from the government is not good news. The chamber has long been calling on the government to expedite the matter," she said.

Ms Sant Fournier explained that another part of the document delved into the 'pharmacist of your choice scheme', which she felt was "the be all and end all of community pharmacies in Malta".

Another proposal that the committee had considered was the possibility of introducing a system where people eligible for free medicines from the government, could collect them from pharmacies instead.

"I think this system would greatly benefit people because they could collect the national health service medicines from the pharmacy of their locality and get individual attention at the same time," she pointed out.

"The pharmacist could keep a record of the patients' individual medication and in the process control the abuse and use of medicines and cut down on the waste of resources," she said.

Ms Sant Fournier continued to say that the fact it had taken so long to reach concrete decisions on the matter meant that pharmacies were suffering in the process.

"We are often accused of looking after our own interests, but we want to be able to give the service that society deserves in this day and age and in line with EU and international standards," she said.

"The document also highlighted pharmacy practice guidelines to ensure that good service standards are maintained and improved upon - this delay does not augur well for our profession," she said.

However, when contacted Dr Deguara said that the delay was caused, among others, due to the fact that the government was discussing the EU chapter on the free movement of goods and persons, which would determine what decisions the government would take on the report submitted.

"We have now reached our own conclusions and fairly soon we will be communicating these to the committee," he said.

In response to the GRTU's newsletter Dr Deguara wanted to clarify that no agreement as such had been reached except that the ministry had agreed that the proposals were not binding and would only be actuated once an agreement is reached.

"There is nothing to implement until we have fully discussed the document and agreed on every proposal," he said.

Dr Deguara said that one of the proposals the government disagreed with was the dispensing of free medicine in pharmacies.

"The committee asked that the dispensing fee of free medicine be established at Lm5 per patient per month or else Lm2 for every prescription - this would translate to about Lm60 for every patient each year," he said.

"Such a request is unheard of," Dr Deguara said.