Pharmacists reduced to packers

The leader of June 12 (Improving Medicine Distribution) merits a reply because of its simplistic arguments.

First of all one must keep in mind that no meaningful investment has been made in government pharmacies, whether in logistics or human resources. The UHM has over the years being urging the government not to let its pharmacies be understaffed in the face of many resignations coupled with an ever increasing number of patients.

The money that the government is reportedly going to fork out for the pharmacy of your choice scheme will amount to some Lm1,120,000, going to pharmacy owners which in their majority are not pharmacists. If the government had invested just a fraction of this amount every year in its own pharmacies they would now be offering a better service.

Government pharmacists will be reduced to just "packers" of medicines destined for private pharmacies. As professionals they will be deprived of their professional duties and expected to keep their mouth shut. The UHM will not tolerate this insolence.

It must also be pointed out that the system of picking up medicines from the towns' bereg already exists and only five per cent of patients make use of this system, apart from the fact that all health centre pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are against this outdated system since it goes against all pharmacy dispensing principles. The people should also be told that this system will still entail a trip to a government doctor for a prescription. And if a product is out of stock patients will still have to go to a government pharmacy.

Consultation with the UHM, which represents government pharmacists, took place only in one meeting in which the union was told what the government had agreed with the GRTU and Chamber of Pharmacists which represents pharmacy owners.

The government wants to introduce the pharmacy of your choice scheme only a few months before the general election. Unfortunately it will be aborted by the government before it is born. It would have been better had the government taken bold steps to make sure that the price of medicines bought from private pharmacies is reasonable and just, and not some six per cent above EU average.