Gov’t meets promise to pay pharmacists

Private pharmacists have received a long overdue government payment owed to them for dispensing prescription drugs under the National Drug Formulary, the druggists’ spokesman disclosed on Thursday.

President of the Barbados Pharmaceutical Society Marlon Ward-Rogers said the back pay for November and December last year was disbursed this week.

“The pharmacies have been paid for the outstanding months,” Ward-Rogers told Barbados TODAY. “We are still awaiting January, but obviously that wouldn’t be ready yet until later this month, but at least November and December have been covered.”

He said while money is still outstanding, the pharmacists would wait until later in the month for that.

“There is still the grace period that they use to pay by like the 20th or 25th  of this month, so that’s not an issue. We just hope that we don’t have to wait for January money until April now or late March. So, that’s the only thing. So, we are hoping that by the end of this month, we could have January settled that we can continue to roll over smoothly.”

Ward-Rogers praised Delores Mascoll, the Barbados Drug Service’s new director, for working tirelessly to try to fix the pay dispute so the pharmacists “could have a better bond with the Drug Service”.

“We want to thank her because she has only been on the job for a couple months now,” he said. “We want to thank her for the swift work and actually trying to follow up with the PS [Permanent Secretary] in the Ministry of Health.”

Reflecting on the financial challenges the pharmacists faced while payments remained outstanding, Ward-Rogers stressed their commitment to continue serving patients as long as possible.

“We don’t want to disadvantage the patients, but as business people, we don’t have unlimited budgets…and, as I said, it is a partnership between the government and the private pharmacies. We put out our [money] first, but at the end of the day, we still need to get it back to allow us to continue. But we are dedicated to making sure that our patients have the best care and medication to help battle non-communicable diseases especially.

“So, hopefully, the government could be on time to try to allow this process to move smoothly…. Remember, the polyclinics are already out of a lot of stuff…if pressure goes on the private, then that is the last end of the time.”

Barbados TODAY broke the story last week that the cost of prescription drugs from commercial pharmacies could go up, as the Drug Service had not paid them for three months for the prescription drugs they dispense under the formulary, a list of medications that are provided free or made more affordable to eligible patients.

He had also warned that having been caught in a financial bind, the pharmacists could pass on the full cost of the listed drugs to patients to recoup the loss of income for those drugs that are sold from the formulary. 

(EJ)