I need no convincing that the well-meaning Minister for Health is indeed a very busy man. Yet I do think he should find the time to see to the work practices of the outpatients' pharmacy at Mater Dei.

Two months ago I was told by the pharmacist of my choice (POYC) that my Lipitor pills had not been delivered because they were out of stock. He suggested I go to the Mater Dei pharmacy because there I could get them. I did so a few days later, took a look at the crowd, yes a crowd not an orderly queue, some 20 metres long and rushed out again. No choice but to buy the pills: a two-month supply cost me €90.

This week, two months later, I again presented my prescription and cards to the POYC and was again told the same story: your pills are still out of stock, try Mater Dei. A glutton for punishment, I did; only this time I was there at 7.15 a.m.; still, some two dozen hopefuls had got there before me. I say "some", because here, it is not like at a deli counter of a supermarket where you are treated civilly and provided with a ticket dispenser machine which issues you with a number and a screen to inform you whose turn it is. At the Mater Dei pharmacy you are all the time trying to ward off, or even tell off, new arrivals jostling for a place at the head of the queue. That is not the duty of the security officer; that is up to you waiting there.

If you ask the security officer whether there is a way of knowing if your pills are available so that you do not hang around there just making the air thicker, you are informed that the pharmacist will give that information at 8 a.m. I did not get my answer before 8.45 a.m., when my turn came. A woman in a blue uniform who kept going in and out of the pharmacy had told me some 10 minutes earlier that Lipitor pills were now available. But when it was my turn I was told that they were not. Strange! Where had the pills gone? Had that good woman given me some information she should not have divulged? But what could I do? Again no choice but to fork out another €90.

Lest someone thinks that the short supply of pills is limited to Lipitor, I hasten to add that 10 minutes into opening time, the waiting crowd had dwindled to a manageable queue as those exiting the pharmacy loudly reeled off a list of unavailable pills and people who had been waiting for an hour or more scurried off in a huff.

The major thrust of this letter is of course the availability of pills to which people are entitled. By any chance, do importers have to use up their large stocks before we can hope to get our pills again for free?

I am confident Minister Joseph Cassar will also be looking into the other thrust of this letter: everybody, especially people needing pills, deserves a more humane and efficient treatment than the disservice being rendered at the moment.