Union, minister discuss community pharmacies

The health services section of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) and Health Minister Louis Deguara yesterday discussed the problems at community pharmacies in the wake of complaints about long queues and delays in obtaining medicine.

A spokesman for the Health Division told The Times that several options were being considered to deal with the ever growing load of patients on pharmacies.

In 2004, there were 161,000 visits to the St Luke's Hospital's outpatients' pharmacy and 402,512 to community pharmacies.

While attendance at the hospital pharmacy declined slightly last year, there was an increase of about 50,000 attendances at the community pharmacies. This was triggered by the fact that a number of medicines that were previously only available at the hospital could be collected from the community pharmacies, the spokesman said.

UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella said the union felt that a lot of preparatory work to deal with community pharmacy issues was being done, and stressed the need for more communication between the unions and the government.

The two sides also discussed the transfer of Zammit Clapp Hospital to a new facility and the reform in the health sector and working conditions.

On a more general note, Mr Vella said the government seemed reluctant to issue information on future changes and developments.

"The level of consultation needs to improve," he said.