Pharmacist stands by claims of political discrimination in POYC

Pharmacist Denise Ellul has stood by her statement that political discrimination was taking place at the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme.

Ellul was reacting to a joint press statement issued by the health ministry, the GRTU and the Chamber of Pharmacists in the past days. In the statement, the health ministry once again denied political discrimination had taken place while the Chamber of Pharmacists and the GRTU denied ever making such statements.

First media reports on alleged political discrimination in the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme were made by Ellul during a political activity organised by the Nationalist Party.

A few days after her address, the health ministry requested a meeting with the pharmacist to acquire further details. Present for the meeting were the permanent secretary within the health ministry and the POYC CEO.

According to Ellul, the CEO confirmed that the Health Department asked for the personal details of patients who call at the ministry because of out-of-stock medicines. This, she added, was done to ascertain that the patient calling was entitled to receive the medicine.

“This in itself is a clear admission that medicines are sent directly to the patients and not to the pharmacy. If they are sent to the pharmacy, the department would not need the patient’s details but only the name of the pharmacy which the patient is registered with,” Ellul said.

She insisted that this was “an explicit confirmation” of the existing discrimination between patients who called at the ministry or the POYC and those who don’t call at all. “Those who call at the ministry would be informed before other patients and the pharmacists themselves, giving them a clear advantage on when the stock would arrive.”

Ellul said the advantage was bigger when one considered that the stock of medicine arriving at the pharmacy “is not enough to cover each patient”.

The pharmacist said that at no point did the government provide any proof that her claims were not true.

“Everyone agrees that out-of-stock medicine is a long-existing problem but no one expected the situation to turn to the worse or that patients suffer discrimination.

“Without going into the political discussion, because that is neither my role nor my intention, the high expectations patients were given have turned into frustration creating bigger problems for the pharmacists.”