The number of conditions for which patients are entitled to free medicine will be doubled in an overhaul of the system announced yesterday by Health Minister Joe Cassar.

Speaking during the debate in second reading amending the Social Services Act, Dr Cassar told Parliament that the reform was intended to reflect today’s realities and medical advances.

The list of medical conditions entitling sufferers to free medicines will go up to 34 from 18 and include 11 conditions related to cancer.

There will be one administration for the second and fifth schedules that cover patients on social assistance and those suffering from chronic diseases.

The reform includes a stock take and an analysis of the system. The minister said the aim at the reduction of inefficiencies in the procurement of drugs and the fair distribution of free medicine.

There would be investment in the IT system to curb abuses and make access to entitlement simpler and more efficient. A call for tenders for a new system would be issued in the coming months.

Minister Cassar said that with immediate effect the number of free syringes for diabetes sufferers would be tripled and the entitlement to testing apparatus would not be limited according to age. A number of administrative procedures were established for foreigners and irregular immigrants.

The restructuring process included the administrative transfer of such diseases as polio, diabetes, tuberculosis and leprosy from the second (Kartuna Roża) to the fifth schedule (Kartuna Safra). These sufferers would now be entitled to free medicine irrespective of their age.

Free medicine for psychiatric patients has been extended to include dementia and other conditions such as ADHD, Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy and eating disorders.

The reform, Dr Cassar said, was based on respect to patients entitled to free medicines. It demonstrated that the government was ready to invest in the health sector.

Last year, the cost of free medicines distributed to patients from Mater Dei Hospital’s pharmacy totalled €24.4 million, 10 per cent up on the previous year. This rise was mostly due to a revision in the free medicines’ formulary, which saw the addition of 11 “very expensive” drugs to treat cancer patients.

The EU last year urged Malta to review its schedule of free medicines to ensure it was equivalent to those supplied freely in other member states.