The pharmacist who claimed that political discrimination was rife in the distribution of medicines has stood by her claim despite a government internal discrim-ination probe saying it was not the case.
Denise Ellul had made her claim during a Nationalist Party political activity at the beginning of the European Parliament electoral campaign.
This spurred an internal investigation by the Health Minister Permanent Secretary who, within a few days, concluded that there was no such discrimination.
Ms Ellul said she stood by her statement that patients who called at the Health Ministry were receiving free medicines before other patients.
She issued a statement responding to another one issued by the Chamber of Pharmacists and Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) regarding the discrimination claim.
She said that during a meeting with the permanent secretary at the ministry and in the presence of the chief executive of the Pharmacy of Your Choice (POYC) scheme she had confirmed that patients who went to the ministry seeking medicines were asked for their personal details and other information about their medicines.
This in itself, she said, was an admission that the medicines were sent to the patients and not the pharmacies as otherwise the patients’ details would not have been requested.
At no time during the meeting or in the statement issued were my discrimination claims disproved
The IT system showed what medicines needed to be delivered to the pharmacies and what stock they had, she said. “This is an explicit confirmation of discrimination between patients who call the Health Ministry or the POYC scheme managers and those who did not. Those who called are informed, even before the pharmacist, when the medicines will be available, giving them an advantage over other patients, especially since the stocks that arrive at pharmacies would not be enough for everyone,” she said in her statement.
Ms Ellul said that while nobody expected the problem of shortage of medicines to be solved overnight, no one expected discrimination.
“At no time during the meeting or in the statement issued were my discrimination claims disproved,” she said.
Ms Ellul added that while her intention was not to get involved in politics, she flagged the discrimination to “vent the frustration felt by patients”.
In their statement, the Chamber of Pharmacists and the GRTU’s healthcare section never denied the discrimination claims but had said that they had been assured that the POYC was not being subjected to political discrimination in its operations.
Soon after Ms Ellul had made her claims, Health Minister Konrad Mizzi immediately denied that this was happening, adding that political discrimination in the distribution of medicines would not happen under his watch.
The Nationalist Party media had also alleged following these claims that patients were being asked to collect their medicines, prepared in packages bearing their names, from some Labour Party clubs. It also said that Labour MPs were doing this for their constituents.
Meanwhile, questions sent yesterday to the health parliamentary secretary for his reaction to Ms Ellul’s insistence remained unanswered by the time of going to print.