Pharmacists register industrial dispute

The Chamber of Pharmacists has declared an industrial dispute with the health authorities over proposed legislation currently being discussed in parliament.

It has called an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday to discuss further action.

The chamber's arguments were echoed almost to the letter in a separate statement by the GRTU, Association of General Retailers and Traders, which has a section representing pharmacists.

But the Health Department instantly hit back and accused the chamber of jumping the gun with misguided misconceptions.

The chamber said the proposed Medicines Act was giving rise to an archaic situation where a one-person authority - the Licensing Authority - decides on and controls all matters relating to the practice of the pharmacy profession.

It also complained that an agreement reached in 1999 between the government, the Chamber of Pharmacists and the GRTU's pharmacy owners section on the geo-demographic distribution of pharmacy licences had been ignored.

The agreement had called for a tripartite standing joint committee to manage the licensing of pharmacies.

Verbal assurances of legal notices to be published at a later date had fallen far short of what had been proposed and agreed upon by two subsequent administrations since 1998.

Also, in complete disregard to safeguarding public health, no amendments were made to define pharmacists as the only people qualified to dispense medicines and pharmacies as the sole professional areas from where medicines may be dispensed. This could result in medicines being "traded" by "authorised" people from any "authorised" place.

The chamber also said that it had not been given the opportunity to take part in the discussion at committee stage, on amendments.

"This was evident in the fact that the bill was shoddily presented, shoddily amended and, in most cases, was not even fully understood by the health authorities."

The GRTU said it would not accept anybody threatening the livelihood of its members for personal or political gain as the result of a law the section considered to be restrictive, regressive and abominable.

It said that it stood shoulder to shoulder with the chamber in its stand.

Health Director General Ray Busuttil said at a news conference what the department was trying to do was ensure standards across the board.

"What we're interested in is simply regulating medicines and that everything is above board. We'll be introducing this law to ensure transparency throughout," he insisted.

Dr Busuttil said the new law was being introduced to regulate and control manufacture, storage, advertising and the licensing of pharmacies, among others.

It also aims to introduce a system of provisional market authorisation for medicines that were on the local market by last November.

Dr Busuttil said the draft legislation was evaluated by European Commission and World Health Organisation officials who commented positively on it.

He also accused the chamber of trying to dictate terms to the health authorities.