Medicine bill cuts benefit the purchase of costly cancer drugs

The monthly bill on medicines dropped to €4 million from €7 million, leaving more spending money for pricey cancer drugs, Social Policy John Dalli has said.

The extra €3 million saved would be used to buy expensive drugs for cancer treatment the cost of which runs into the thousands of euros, he said during a seminar at the General Workers' Union's offices in Valletta.

Mr Dalli had launched an accountability exercise that examined how the government bought medicines. He had described the old system of buying medicines on a three-year contract as "crazy" because it was bureaucratic and drawn out without being cost-effective.

Speaking to the union's pensioners' section, Mr Dalli said almost €1.25 billion, or 43 per cent of the country's total expenditure, was spent on social services. However, he admitted, more had to be done to improve social services. These could become better without increasing taxes.

A balance had to be found between a good quality of life for pensioners without increasing the burden through taxes on the workforce, Mr Dalli said.

He appealed to all unions to cooperate in his attempt to reform the healthcare system. The agenda had to focus on the patient and not be set by those who provided the service, he said.

Referring to the recent dispute with the doctors' union over the health centres, Mr Dalli pointed out that all he had tried to do was change something minor - "just a wart" in the scheme of things.

"When I tried to change something and move doctors who were not needed in the night shift to the morning, when it was busier, you could see what happened. They decided to strike," he said.

The doctors refused the change because it was to their advantage to work the night shift, which was quieter, he added.

There was no synchronisation of the health services due to, among other things, the 400 different shift systems in Mater Dei Hospital, Mr Dalli said.

"I want a hospital that works full-time and not between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.," he said.

Mr Dalli's comments did not go down well with doctors, who, according to the Medical Association of Malta, found them "deeply offensive and most unfair".

"This confrontational attitude, singling out the medical profession, does not augur well for the future of the health service," MAM president Martin Balzan said.