Medicine importers owed €30 million in arrears can blame the Finance Ministry for not issuing the money due for medicines bought last year, Social Policy Minister John Dalli said yesterday.
"The Finance Ministry is the stopper here - we are negotiating with the Ministry to give us the money," he said.
Interviewed yesterday during a di-ve.com business breakfast, Mr Dalli said his ministry did not have any money to pay the pharmaceutical importers: "I don't have a mint."
He told medicine importers present at the breakfast, who were listening intently to his every word, that his ministry had to ensure services at Mater Dei ran smoothly.
The medicine importers have been highly critical of the government over the long delay in settling dues of over €30 million - 40 per cent of which has been owed for the past six months.
Mr Dalli also said his Ministry is revising the current entitlement system for free medicines, which will be carefully restructured. The new system will concentrate on making expensive medicines, such as the breast cancer drug Herceptin, accessible to people who cannot afford them.
Mr Dalli also spoke of the need to track the use of medicines in hospitals for more accountability and cost control.
He criticised his own government's system of purchasing medicine by number of pills instead of courses (of treatment).
He also described the three-year government contract to buy medicines as "crazy", saying it is a bureaucratic and long-drawn out process which is not cost effective. Instead, the government is looking into the possibility of purchasing medicines on the internet.
A monitoring unit, with a budget of €1.4 million, is auditing all the services at Mater Dei and within a few weeks will present a report listing the exact cost of all the services at hospital. The final objective of the auditing exercise is to offer sustainable health care.
The government needs to spend more in preventive care but cannot do so under the present system, which is primarily focused on curative care, he added.
Mr Dalli also criticised the different shift systems, around 400, in Mater Dei Hospital and called for one common one.
Speaking about the controversial waiting lists, Mr Dalli said the key to resolving the situation was not in who drew up the lists but in opening the 13 unused operating theatres at Mater Dei Hospital.
Out of the 25 operating theatres, only 12 are being used due to lack of nursing and medical staff, he said, echoing the doctors' union's recent defence of the waiting list system after it was heavily criticised by the Ombusdman.