Health Minister Louis Deguara has said he disagrees with the National Commission for Health Reform’s proposals to widen the mental illnesses covered by free medication, claiming the commission’s views came from a “narrow perspective”.
The same commission has threatened mass resignation in a letter it sent last month to the minister should he keep ignoring their proposals.
The commission has expressed its disappointment at the minister’s lacking feedback to proposals it made in October to entitle long-term mental health patients to free medicine, while stopping the blatant abuse of patients and the system.
But when asked for his reaction to the letter, Deguara said the commission was “just and advisory body” that was only meant to give him advice.
“The demands the commission is making are similar to demands made by diabetics, eczema sufferers and all others who want to increase the range of free medicinals available,” Deguara told MaltaToday.
“It’s a very narrow perspective and whoever has an interest in one illness or another is putting across the same argument.”
As the present health regulations stand, most of the medication given for free is being prescribed under a false diagnosis simply to fall under Schedule V – the list of chronic illnesses meriting free medicine.