Pharmacy-of-your-choice system

I refer to the leader of June 12 (Improving Medicine Distribution).

Following meetings with Department of Health officials and the Health Minister, the UHM is disappointed at the lack of information given regarding the proposed Pharmacy of Your Choice (POYC) scheme. The information given included only an outline of the proposed POYC system dynamics. During the first two years, this system will act as an extended Health Centre pharmacy postal service.

Currently patients utilising the berga service, present at the berga with their prescription and necessary cards/documentation. These cards and prescriptions will in turn be sent to one of the eight government pharmacies where government pharmacy staff prepare and dispense the medicines against the medical prescriptions. Relevant information is written on the medicinal packs/containers by government pharmacists. These medicines are then packed in bags, registered and sent back to the berga. This postal service process usually takes 15 to 21 days. Therefore the patient must go again to the berga to collect the prepared prescription pack three weeks after his/her first visit. Despite this available system, only about 15-20 per cent of patients opt to use this system.

The prescriptions are validated against the necessary documentation at the government pharmacies while the entire preparation of the medicines against the relevant prescription is performed entirely by government pharmacy employees. The private pharmacy in the POYC scheme, is proposed to replace the services offered by the local berga and not the services offered by the Government health centre pharmacies. The medicines will not be prepared by the private pharmacies as is done by the government pharmacies. They will simply distribute the prepared, packed medicines as is currently done at the local bereg but at a cost of Lm8 per patient. With this proposed POYC system patients have no choice but to use this system, despite 80 per cent of patients never having opted to use the berga system. The Maltese public is being misled in that patients will have their medication prepared in front of them at the private pharmacies.

This proposed POYC system which is thought to serve up to 140,000 patients will render an annual income of Lm1,120,000 to private pharmacies. However, the government's pharmacy staff will be doing most of the work. The Lm1,120,000 (excluding transport expenses) will not replace the current government expense for medicinal distribution but will be added onto it, therefore, doubling the government expense. If the government had invested a fraction of the amount being offered to the private pharmacies, into the health centre government pharmacies, the patient waiting times and professional service given would have been greatly improved. Many plans were proposed to improve the current service but lack of funds always stopped such initiatives and progress. Does the public know that a new PHCD government pharmacy, forming part of the Rabat health centre is fully equipped and was planned to be opened once new pharmacy staff was recruited in summer? This new Rabat government pharmacy was planned to reduce the Mosta pharmacy catchment area and therefore reduce drastically patient queues at Mosta pharmacy. Is this perfect government planning? The PHCD working to improve its pharmaceutical service provision while the government is negotiating in selling its services.

Details regarding the operating procedures of this system are to be worked out after the government signs the agreement in the coming week. In the meantime the UHM will maintain its position that it can not take part in this proposed POYC system, before detailed information of the system is handed over to its members. Only then can proper discussion be held.