STATEMENT BY THE HEALTH DIVISION

STATEMENT BY THE HEALTH DIVISION

The Health Division would like to correct some facts that have been overlooked by the Chamber of Pharmacists in their correspondence copied to the Press and in which they registered a dispute with the Health Division.

No new dispensaries have been opened in the community in recent months as claimed by the Chamber of Pharmacists. The last pharmacy to be opened was at Birkirkara Health Centre in March 99. Cospicua Health Centre Pharmacy was in fact not opened because the required staff complement was not available.

In a bid to improve service to patients, in 1998 a system of issuing a 2 monthly supply of free medicines was introduced and this significantly reduced the pressure of work at the pharmacies. Statistics show a consistent decrease ranging from 9% to 40% in the number of attending patients, prescriptions, and items dispensed for January, February and March 2000 as compared to the same months in 1999. Furthermore the Health Division also introduced dispensing of various non-stock items from peripheral pharmacies to reduce the pressure on St. Luke's Hospital pharmacy and distribute patients requiring special drugs among the various Health Centres.

In spite of the fact that the complement at Health Centre pharmacies is not at full strength the general situation at the pharmacies is stable and no crisis situation exists. Queues are within manageable levels. The efforts of the staff in putting in extra effort is appreciated, but at the same time it is not considered that there is a situation of an unmanageable workload.

The full staff complement is a mix of 51 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The present complement is 18 pharmacists and 25 pharmacy technicians., a total of 43. Of these 6 staff members are on parental leave and 3 are on reduced hours.

The Health Division has made all efforts possible to recruit more pharmacists but these efforts have not been successful. There are no pharmacists seeking employment with Government.

It is expected that more pharmacists will be available from the newly qualified group of pharmacists in June/July.

Yesterday after the Chamber of Pharmacists withdrew all its directives a meeting was held between the Chamber and Health Ministry officials. Following an exchange of views, both parties agreed that some administrative adjustments were required in order to deal with delivery of out of stock items from the Central Stores to Health Centre pharmacies. The Ministry will be seeking options for a solution and will convene another meeting of all parties concerned in the very near future.

18.05.2000