Although an overwhelming majority of pharmacists in Mosta, Naxxar, Gharghur, Mgarr and St Paul’s Bay will join the new Pharmacy Of Your Choice scheme – which will allow pharmacies to dispense government medicines to their clients – nearly half the participants of the pilot project claim they were not sufficiently informed on the new scheme.
The pilot project involving localities serviced by the Mosta health centre is expected to be launched shortly and will to span for four to six months.
Twenty-one out of 23 pharmacies in these localities were contacted by MaltaToday between Monday and Tuesday. These included all pharmacies in Mosta, Naxxar, St Paul’s Bay, Mgarr and Gharghur.
Only one pharmacy owner said he will not join the scheme while two other pharmacies are still undecided.
But nine out of 21 pharmacy owners claim that were not sufficiently informed on the “pharmacy of your choice” scheme launched by the Prime Minister, the GRTU and the Chamber of Pharmacists in July.
The pharmacists who said they felt sufficiently informed on the scheme attended three meetings organised by both the GRTU and the Chamber of Pharmacy. But other pharmacy owners claim they have only learned of the scheme from the newspapers.
“I have not received any circular on this issue. I did not attend any meeting because I am not a GRTU member. I only learned about the scheme from the newspapers,” a Mosta pharmacy owner told MaltaToday.
This feeling was shared by two other pharmacists who claimed a complete lack of information. “We know nothing about the scheme,” a Naxxar pharmacist said.
A pharmacist from Qawra lamented that the GRTU has taken a disproportionate role in negotiations with the government. “The GRTU has little knowledge of our profession. It has taken too much of a role on an issue affecting the profession. I would have preferred it if the Chamber of Pharmacists took a more active role on this issue.”
A pharmacist from Bugibba who attended the GRTU meetings claimed the meetings did not explain the technical details.
Contacted by MaltaToday, Maryanne Sant Fournier, the president of the Chamber of Pharmacists, acknowledged that the meetings held so far did not enter into the details and dealt with general principles and the road map for the introduction of this long awaited reform.
Sant Fournier explained that an advisory committee has been set up to address the technical details of the implementation of the new scheme. An email address has also been created to address the concerns of pharmacists.
A copy of the agreement signed with the government has been sent to all the Chamber’s pharmacists and further information meetings will be held in future. But Sant Fournier made it clear there is no turning back.
“The Chamber has been proposing the scheme for the past 20 years. Pharmacists are fully aware of this. It’s now the time to stand up to be counted. We clearly have a mandate to implement the scheme.”
In fact none of the pharmacies contacted by MaltaToday disagreed with the introduction of the new scheme. “I have been awaiting for this scheme for decades. We have an obligation to render this service to patients,” a Bugibba pharmacy owner said.
Storage space in small pharmacies is one of the main concerns expressed by owners. Another major headache for pharmacists is how to confront patients collecting the already packed medicines when free medicines from the government stores are out of stock.
One pharmacy owner expressed concern that there could be cases where medicines will be available on the shelf for normal paying customers, but not available in the packs prepared by the government for the non-paying customers because they are out of stock in the government’s stores. “The private pharmacist could be caught in the middle. Such a situation could also result in abuse. The government could solve this by issuing a circular on any out-of-stock medicines which the pharmacy owners will put on for display,” one owner said.
“The pilot project gives us the chance to address teething problems before the scheme is launched on a national scale,” a Naxxar pharmacy owner said. “One can only learn to tackle problems through experience.”