Pharmacy of Your Choice failing primary objectives – Labour

Labour candidate and PL spokesperson for Health Marie Louise Coleiro-Preca said that the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme is failing its primary objectives, and accused the government of lacking both a concrete plan, and of having proper priorities in place in this regard.

"Not only has GonziPN failed to fulfill its promises, that the POYC would be spread throughout Malta and Gozo by 2010, but since work started to introduce this scheme into remaining localities where it was not available, government made no attempt to revise the system to make up for its shortcomings."

She said that rhe scheme's top objective was to ensure that patients receive better service in their own communities with the least hassles possible.

Instead, the Labour spokesperson said that patients still have to struggle to obtain their medications, often resorting to going Health Centers or even Mater Dei Hospital.

She accused government of allowing the POYC scheme to become mired in bureaucracy which, she said, "does not reflects the efficiency targets or work in the best interests of the patients - particularly the elderly and the vulnerable."

Coleiro-Preca noted "it is enough to consider the example that the POYC supply medicines for two months, and not for three as the government's pharmacy does. This is causing confusion and inconvenience for patients."

"In many pharmacies, patients are being asked to call in more than once to collect their medication, and this is because the pharmacies are not keeping up with the necessary administrative legwork that the system involves, all the more so when the medicines are 'out of stock'," Coleir-Preco said.

She said the situation is more acute for those patients suffering from more debilitating conditions, who would not be in a position to "run around" in their search for medication which they would not be able to obtain from POYC pharmacies, health centers, or Mater Dei.

Coleiro-Preca also hit out at government for not addressing the problem of medication being out of stock, and of causing unnecessary hardship to those patients who cannot afford expensive medication.

She said that this "shows that GonziPN's government lacks a plan or proper priorities and it is why a new government, if given the trust of the people, is committed to being more responsible with the taxpayers' money."