Opposition spokesman on health Anthony Zammit said in Parliament yesterday he had expected the medicine authority to be an integral part of the competition and consumer affairs authority.
Speaking during the debate in second reading of the Bill setting up the new authority, Dr Zammit said the medicines authority played an important role not only through safeguarding standards but also through analysing the danger in buying medicines online. There had been cases where companies had bought medicines through the net and sold them to clients even though these were sub-standard.
People had high expectations when it came to consumer protection and many were aware of consumer rights in the EU. Some people had voted in favour of Malta’s accession to the EU because they believed that the position of consumers would be improved.
The Bill had three main aims: increasing consumer protection, effective and immediate solutions to complaints and to change society’s mentality to promote self regulation. The consumer could have been better treated had the Bill included the creation of a one-stop-shop.
The health sector was not properly covered in the Bill. It was unacceptable that certain medicines were out of stock, Dr Zammit noted.
At beginning of the month, the government had announced that it had cut the price of 129 medicines. But three weeks later many medicines were still being sold at the original price.
A case in point was Lescol XL. This medicine was previously listed as costing €39.73 and should now be sold at €33.29. Yet, to date, wholesalers were quoting €33.70. When questioned the Fair Competition division said that wholesalers had a right to keep to these prices until they used up old stocks.
Dr Zammit asked whether the government had analysed the quantities in stocks. How would one know when wholesalers had truly used up their stock? He could not understand how in countries such as Italy, even though wages were higher, the price of medicines was much cheaper than here.
It was unacceptable that no doctors were available in polyclinics during the night and on Sundays. Furthermore, though €400 million had been invested at Mater Dei Hospital, patients were still being given a mediocre service having to wait 36 hours on a stretcher to be seen to.
People were being made to wait five years for operations, a year for an outpatient appointment, three to six months for an X-ray and a further three months for results. He could not understand how surgeons conducted one to two operations a week. He noted that in Germany a surgeon carried out an operation a day.
The Bill offered no concrete indication on how consumers would be protected. The government had taken three entities and put them all under one umbrella. Yet it failed to create the necessary boundaries between each directorate, resulting instead in overlapping.
The new entity formed part of the ministry. Thus, could a fair decision be taken in the case of a complaint against any government service?
Concluding, the Labour spokesman said the new authority needed to be more transparent. He hoped it would be given the necessary funds and human resources to function properly.
Anthony Agius Decelis (PL) said both providers and buyers must be protected against abuse. All must have a fair deal.
Senior people were among the most vulnerable. Their predicament was made worse by problems of mobility for checking prices and by very little familiarity with technology. Both aspects made it harder for them to compare offers.
Only 19 per cent of senior citizens had driving licences, and fewer actually drove. With any difficulties to use public transport, a good deal far from their residences would be inaccessible.
Living in an assisted facility did not mean loss of dignity, but almost 5,000 senior citizens in such homes all over Malta were probably more vulnerable than others living in the community. Care must be taken to see that they were still given a choice of product, by both home management and family members. It did not mean much that the print on a product was in a standard font, if it was so fine as to be illegible.
Some desirable aspects of information were prices in large figures, the number of calories in a food or drink product, its lifetime besides the expiry date, and information on materials used because of allergy problems. If a product’s lifetime was six months it should not cost as much as one with six years.
Buyers must be helped with clear guidance, such as what could happen if the buyer was allergic to certain foods, creams or clothes products. The best possible information would make for a win-win situation.
When consumers were unfairly done by, their accessibility to redress must be quick and effective, because long waiting times could constitute a mental block. There should already be plans to re-evaluate what was being done today. It would not help much if the authorities did something good but then failed to monitor it continually, concluded Mr Agius Decelis.