The ministry takes exception to the article ‘Government pledges end to POYC interference’ published in Times of Malta on March 20. At no point during the meeting did the permanent secretary state that he will “do everything within his power to stop the reported abuse”.

The permanent secretary only argued that the ministry will be looking further into the issue notwithstanding the fact that this matter, which was raised unilaterally, was not submitted as an agenda item.

The POYC Unit is duty bound to supply available pharmaceutical stock items whenever patients inform us that their particular pharmacy is out of stock of a particular item.

The POYC Unit has in place a number of contingency measures to mitigate any stock shortages that may arise from time to time, based on optimum patient-focused rationale.

These include timely recollection and redistribution of stock between the NHS dispensaries and the 212 community pharmacies participating in the POYC scheme, and a courier service to facilitate delivery of supplementary/urgent orders on a daily basis.

Indeed, distribution of limited stock is based on a first-come, first-served basis and orders are always issued to pharmacies.

At no point does the ministry or the POYC Unit issue pharmaceuticals to specific patients unless these fall under the ‘clinically approved’ policies. In such cases, the POYC Unit contacts the pharmacists to guide them on government’s specific dispensing medical protocols.