Medical prescriptions need monitoring

The proposal put forward by the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry regarding "changes" in the Pharmacy of Your Choice and the system of free medicines is a non-starter for various reasons.

The chairman of the Healthcare Section of the Chamber, Reginald Fava, who is also an importer, proposed that patients (the great majority pensioners) pay for the free medicines and afterwards will be reimbursed by the government.

The Chamber should know that pensioners cannot afford to pay for higher priced medicines and be reimbursed a part of the price of medicines. This will lead them to fall into the poverty bracket. On the other hand the government would incur extra expenses and this not only on the administrative side but also on the medicines themselves. The solution for the government to curb abuses is strict surveillance on issuers of prescriptions. Another avenue is that since this is a system of free medicines the government can import medicines directly. The system proposed is not sustainable to the great majority of pensioners and the country.