Richard Stagno Navarra, Balzan
Remedies needed for pharmacy scheme
The editorial on the pharmacy of your choice (POYC) and its development made interesting reading (August 13). There are a number of faults with the system that need to be remedied.
I am entitled to free medicines for a couple of medical ailments, one of which is high blood pressure.
What is surprising is that tablets prescribed by my doctor on the appropriate form are more often than not, not delivered to the pharmacy and consequently the client is asked to go to the health clinic to collect them. There is no assurance that you will find them there. These tablets are Amlodipine 5mg. There are other times when you are given the 10mg tablets and told to split them.
Another issue is that you are entitled to tablets every two months yet although the doctor prescribes 60 tablets, a daily dose for two months, you are only given 56 tablets as each packet contains 28 tablets.
I cannot complain of the service at St Michael's Pharmacy in Lija where Gillian Muscat, the pharmacist, does her best to try and please everyone. I was, therefore, taken aback when I witnessed a client blaming her in an arrogant and abusive manner for not having the tablets he had listed on his prescription.
This client could not understand that the pharmacy does not buy the tablets but they are supplied by the Health Department and so his anger should have been vented elsewhere not towards the pharmacist.
The POYC needs a lot of fine tuning before it is spread across the whole country.
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C Micallef
Aug 18th 2009, 17:25
The POYC was made on top of the political agenda before the general elections on the basis that patients found it unbearable to wait long hours in the queues. If this is so, then the remedy is to invest in government pharmacists & technicians and open more government pharmacies in areas like Rabat & other places. Only government dispensers have no vested interests in this business of POYC. The other pharmacists who too have no vested interests in this scheme are obviously the employed pharmacists (non-owners) in private pharmacies.
Joseph Schembri
Aug 18th 2009, 14:53
I think pharmacists working at health centres are placed under undue duress by clients who vent their frustration and sometimes anger when they are not given what they are not entitled to or when it is not available.
I once witnessed a huge woman screaming for Valium at a pharmacist who could not of course give her a prescription drug without the necessary papers. More recently I was told by a relative who was queuing there that the very patient pharmacist at the Gzira Health Centre was subject to violence because a client blamed him for unavailability of medicines. Apparently this is a common occurrence and security and sometimes police have to be called.
Anthony Borg
Aug 18th 2009, 14:18
You say you go to the health centre to collect your pills when they are not available at your POYC. When the health centre pharmacies all close down, where are you going to go then? The system does not allow for you to go to another POYC pharmacy who may have stock.
An yes it is the pharmacist who has to deal with all the problems as he is the front desk person. You can speak to all the government pharmacists and they will tell you all about it. Now the privare employed ones are getting a glimpse of the action. Unfortunately it is the pharmacy owner who is getting richer. speak out you pharmacists before its too late.
Claude Farrugia
Aug 18th 2009, 13:25
Whether or not local pharmaceutical manufacturing companies manufacture the product in question is not a criterion for establishing availability. The Government issues calls for tendering for the supply of the product, and it is the winning bidder who supplies Government for the period of the contract. Thus, first of all the winning bidder is not necessarily a local manufacturer, and secondly, the delivery periods being requested in recent tenders are shorter than the production lead times of manufacturing companies; it is only overseas bidders who have larger reserves of stock, due to the larger markets that they supply, who can effect delivery at such short notice.
John Carmel Navarro
Aug 18th 2009, 12:30
I agree with Richard’s comments, but I would love to have the luxury of being able to get my tablets from a Pharmacy, the Three Cities are still waiting for the Pharmacy of your choice to come to fruition. The availability of ‘Amlodipine’ is still a lottery at the Health Centre, I stand to be corrected but I am lead to believe that this particular drug is now manufactured in Malta by one of the Pharmaceutical Companies maybe those made here are just for export!!.
Mark Abela
Aug 18th 2009, 10:16
It is always the pharmacist at the end of the distribution chain that is expected to assume responsibility. The other persons concerned, and that includes prescribing doctors, other pharmacists not facing the patients but who call the shots , informal drug sellers and government clerks just pass the buck to the unfortunate pharmacist behind the counter.
This applies to both pharmacists at community pharmacies serving POYC patients and to government pharmacists at government polyclinics.