Efforts to cut queues at community pharmacies

The problem of long queues at health centre pharmacies, which is irking a number of patients, is being studied by the health authorities.

Contacted yesterday, Primary Health Care director Andrew Amato Gauci said the issue was being discussed within the Health Department.

A number of people contacted The Times to complain that they were having to wait for hours to be able to pick up their free medicines. One person said that although he went to the Gzira health centre pharmacy on Saturday morning at 7.45, there were already over 35 people waiting to be served. The man was eventually served at 10.20 a.m. almost two-and-a-half hours later. Some people, he said, had been waiting there since 5.30 a.m. to ensure they were among the first in line. Other people turning up later in the day found over 60 people waiting to be served before them.

Dr Amato Gauci said the number of patients attending community pharmacies increased by 13.5 per cent between 2004 and 2005, up from 402,512 to 456,931. The number of prescriptions rose by 11 per cent, to 673,548, and the number of items dispensed increased by 10 per cent to over 1.2 million. He said there are eight community pharmacies, apart from those in each of the government hospitals. The community pharmacies provide direct dispensing services for patients in possession of either a pink or a yellow card and others entitled to free medicines, such as the clergy and members of the police force. They also give advice to customers.

He explained that a number of medicines which could previously only be dispensed from the hospital's pharmacy could now be picked up from community pharmacies, something that could possibly be increasing the amount of people going to such pharmacies.

Moreover, Dr Amato Gauci said that the population in Malta was aging, and older people tended to need more medicines.

When contacted, the president of the Malta Chamber of Pharmacists, Maryanne Sant Fournier, said the chamber had offered to help the government start the Pharmacy of Patients' Choice Scheme, that enables the patient to pick up the medicines from a chosen private pharmacy instead of having to go to a government pharmacy.

She said that although the two parties had agreed about the scheme in principle, there were still some pending issues to be discussed.