The Opposition spokesman on health, Claudio Grech, has called on the government not to tackle the shortage of medicines by striking medicines off its formulary.
Speaking on Times Talk yesterday, Mr Grech said amid interruptions by Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia that 20 medicines were removed from the formulary this year alone.
Dr Farrugia replied that times changed, the issue was being tackled from a clinical perspective, and many of those people were being given other medicines.
When questioned on how the medicines situation was being tackled, the minister explained how the procurement system had been improved and simplified, and a pay-per-use system had been introduced to avoid waste.
The system was being centralised and there was now one big warehouse instead of three in different locations. A new IT system was being introduced.
A public consultation had been held about the distribution system, overlaps were being removed and e-prescriptions and a smartcard system were being rolled in.
Mr Grech said he had had two meetings with the minister on the White Paper on medicines.
The overriding principle, he said, was that patients came before profits, especially in this sector where strong commercial interests were involved.
Secondly, the system needed to be improved so that patients would get their medicines in a ‘just in time’ system.
Thirdly, the issue should not be tackled by striking off medicines from the formulary.
Earlier in the programme, Dr Farrugia said health centres will be renovated on the same lines as the Rabat health centre, which was reopened last week.
Mr Grech highlighted three factors which led to pressure on the Accident and Emergency Department.
The first was the long time patients spent waiting. He pointed out that 60 to 70 per cent of patients at the emergency department went there of their own accord.
People didn’t have confidence in being effectively served at the regional health centres, he continued.
Additionally, general practitioners often referred patients even if their condition was not serious, using the Emergency Department as a shortcut into the hospital.
Reacting to comments by nurses’ union president Paul Pace that there was no ward at Mater Dei which had the full staff complement of six nurses, Dr Farrugia replied there would be enough nurses if the shift system was restructured.
However, he conceded that there was a general shortage of nurses on the island, adding that restructuring was needed on an academic level.
Summing up the problems plaguing Malta’s healthcare system, Saint James Hospital chairman Josie Muscat said the system was abused by healthcare professionals, by patients, by agents who sold equipment and medicine, by insurance companies and by politicians.
See a recording of the programme at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140212/timestalk/watch-the-health-sector-is-it-in-a-state-of-emergency.505857#.UvtPuYUlfX8
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