Pharmaceutical Association rues closure of Mater Dei clinical pharmacy service

The MPA said that at Mater Dei, a clinical pharmacy service is currently provided in some departments, and called for the practice to be expanded.

“The decision to interrupt it in some areas within the department of medicine is completely against basic hospital pharmacy standards. The lack of such a service is jeopardising patient safety,” the MPA said.

The association said that pharmacists in government service are finding themselves in a position where their profession is being “manipulated” by persons who are not themselves pharmacists and cannot appreciate the requirements of patients in this respect. “The contribution that pharmacists can render to patients’ progress cannot be appraised by these individuals who are now taking such decisions. The only way that patients can benefit from the service that pharmacists can render to them is for the pharmacists themselves to be assigned the responsibility for the management of the service.”

“Those responsible should take steps to ensure that the interruption of the clinical pharmacy services that has been initiated shall stop forthwith and allow the Minister for Health, Elderly and Community Care to carry on with the good work in advancing Clinical Pharmacy for the benefit of the patient.”