In the light that today, Friday January 17th 2014, was the closing date for public consultation and with stakeholders on the White Paper – Ministry For Health, 4 November 2013: Ensuring Your Right to Entitlement Medicines at the Time You Require Them, we are pleased to inform you that the Joint Committee of the Malta Chamber of Pharmacists and the GRTU – Pharmacy Section has submitted it’s position to the Hon Minister of Health, Dr Godfrey Farrugia on the 27th of December 2013, entitled: The Right Medicine At The Right Time, At An Affordable Price, By The Pharmacist Of The Patient’s Choice.
This submission focused on Option 04 – Local Suppliers of Medicine Distributing POYC Medicines to Community Pharmacies as ‘A just and effective reimbursement model for the continued supply and ease of access to essential medicines, innovative medicines and the ancillary professional services of community pharmacists to patients in Malta’
The basis of this discussion paper presupposes that all discussions would emanate from the Tripartite MOU signed on 27 July 2007 and enhanced by the Addendum, signed on 4 January 2013 by Government, The Malta Chamber of Pharmacists (MCOP) and the GRTU-Pharmacy Section; and the basic tenets of which are not disputable and are considered immutable.
The choice of Option 04 is consequently viewed as a natural extension of the accepted MOU and this operational and distributional option does not in any way impinge on the existing MOU.
This discussion thus reflects a commitment by all stakeholders with Government on areimbursement model, as entrenched in the MOU on the POYC (July 2007 and January 2013), as well as the White Paper entitled: Ensuring Your Right to Entitlement Medicines at the Time You Require Them issued by the Ministry for Health on 4 November 2013 and discussed with the Hon. Minister Dr. Godfrey Farrugia and Mr. David Spiteri Gingell, Consultant, on the 25 November, 4 and 20 December 2013.
In these meetings, both GRTU and Malta Chamber of Pharmacists (MCOP) agreed that Option 04 taken from the White Paper, would be broadly favoured, with improvements and amendments, to both organisations, in the best interests of patient-pharmacist relationship, pharmacies hosting the service and the National Health System.
END
17th January 2014