By Robert Hart, Parliamentary ReporterDR. KEN Baugh, Opposition Spokesman on Health, on Wednesday lambasted the Government for threatening to put a stranglehold on National Health Fund (NHF) drug costs by increasing the number of public pharmacies across the island.
"Inefficiency and overpricing will be punished by the marketplace and offenders can be identified and dealt with, without interfering with the natural processes operating in the marketplace," Dr. Baugh said while making his contribution to the 2004/2005 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.
MAINTAIN CO-OPERATION
The Opposition spokesman argued that it was in the Government's interest to maintain co-operation between private and public pharmacies to ensure that drugs are at all times available to patients. The increased number of public pharmacies, he said, could hurt business for the private entities.
He was responding in part to Health Minister John Junor's warning, earlier this month, that the Government is monitoring consumer costs under the NHF scheme and will consider implementing price controls to prevent unfair hikes in the cost of buying related drugs. Minister Junor had suggested that an anticipated increase in the number of public pharmacies will give consumers "a great option and, accordingly, will assist in assuring that customers enjoy the benefits of any contemplated increase (in NHF subsidies)."
NEW LEGISLATION
He also suggested that the Government would determine whether new legislation would be required to curtail the alleged practices attributed to distributors and pharmacies.
But Dr. Baugh said: "In recent years there was an effort to publish the prices of the drugs in various pharmacies in daily newspapers which was sustained for some time but eventually discontinued. (Now) people call around to pharmacies, check prices and then choose and they move around and settle by their own personal choice."
The NHF was approved in Parliament last October and provides assistance to persons of all ages by supplementing the cost of medication for the 14 most prevalent chronic diseases affecting the population. These include cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, glaucoma and epilepsy, among others.
