Palma.Pharmacists were expressing concern yesterday that they weren't fully informed about new pricing laws coming into effect this Sunday which will require people to pay more for their prescriptions. It will also mean that some medicinal products, in fact 465 of them, will now not be subsidised by the Balearic Health Service at all.
The pharmacists have little choice but to put their trust in their computer systems to resolve any doubts but meanwhile are quite sure that they will have to bear the brunt of complaints from those who are having to pay more for their medicine.
Everything regarding these new restrictions has been rushed through, said one long-standing employee in a pharmacy in Palma yesterday. It's going to be the elderly who will be hit most by the withdrawal of government subsidies, and it'll be hard for us to explain it to them, he warned. It is not the pharmacists who are responsible for a political decision.
One pharmacist in Calle Catalunya in Palma complained that she hadn't even beeen sent a list of the products which were previously available on subscription but which customers will now have to pay for.
Antoni Real, President of the Balearic College of Pharmacists (COFIB)claimed that government officials haven't handled the withdrawal of subsidies correctly and weren't fully aware of how they would affect the public in such a short space of time.
So scant is information on the rule change that COFIB members will be holding a meeting today to discuss the alterations in the provision of medicinal products - how it effects the pharmacies which dispense them and the public who need them.
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