(Adds government statement)
The Labour Party said today that the government's declaration that it would set up an agency for the procurement of medicines was 'a declaration of failure'.
However, the government insisted thats through the setting up of such an agency, the government was updating systems so that there would be improvements. This would provide a solution to systems which were no longer effective in the modern world.
New party health spokesman Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said that while the PL welcomed all initiatives which would make medicines truly available to everyone, it needed to be persuaded that this initiative was not a half-hearted attempt to save face.
If the government truly needed to remedy this problem, an initiative such as this needed to be properly thought out and planned so as not to create a situation where some people could abuse and line their pockets to the detriment of vulnerable patients.
The government should not experiment with the people's health but plan effectively for this sector, Ms Coleiro-Preca said.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VIEWPOINT
The Chamber of Commerce in a reaction last week to comments by the Health Minister on reasons for shortages of medicines, said the Government Health Procurement Services (GHPS) still lacked a dynamic forecasting system in its purchasing procedures. This despite repeated calls for the adoption of such forecasting by the Chamber.
"To make matters worse, GHPS insist on imposing delivery periods which fall short of international manufacturing lead times, and refuses to communicate any form of order planning or rolling forecast to its suppliers," the Chamber said.
"All medicinal supplies to the Health Department are procured via tender contracts with stringent conditions which among others include that government will purchase supplies from the open market in case of late deliveries, and this at the expense of the defaulter’s account.
"The fact that this condition has not been invoked in most of the quoted 48% of cases of shortages allegedly due to late deliveries by contracted parties ( as otherwise availability would have been resolved ), suggests that the actual cause may have well been some other, all be it late ordering," the Chamber said.
Shortages due to problems in adjudication
The Chamber said that in the second half of 2009 and a good part of 2010, an endless list of tenders had been cancelled by the department of contracts, practically all because of minor technicalities arising from conflicting, contradictory and unworkable conditions on the tender document.
The Chamber's Health Care Business Section had on various occasions alerted the the government procurement arm, namely GHPS, of the consequences these conditions could lead to, but GHPS would not take any advice.
"The majority of tenders stuck at adjudication phase were simply self inflicted problems resulting from a unilateral attitude of GHPS and it’s lack of consultation with stakeholders."