Updated 7.20pm with Labour's reaction below

The shadow minister for health, Stephen Spiteri, has called on the government to ensure that people who suffer ADHD get the best medicine from the health service.

He was reacting to reports that the medicine was recently changed, and the new one is not as effective as the one it replaced.  

Dr Spiteri said the government should review its procurement procedure to ensure that the best medicines were available to doctors.  

MEP Francis Zammit Dimech said this was not the first time this had happened. In February the government had reportedly considered cervical cancer treatment which was not as effective as some products.

In diabetes too, doctors said better quality medicines should have been selected by the health service.

He insisted that contrary to some claims, there were no EU rules which forced the government to buy generic medicines instead of branded ones. 

Labour reaction

In a reaction, the Labour Party said it was worth remembering that the present government had solved one of the biggest problems in the national health service, which was medicines out of stock. 

The former PN government had not only created the medicines out of stock problem, but it was also very limited in the choice of medicines it provided. Suffice to observe that the last PN health budget was of €365,132 million, compared to the current €685,808 million.

Furthermore, the government has already taken action to address the problems faced by those suffering ADHD, something the PN seemed to be unaware of.

 

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