There is a shortage of medications at Barbados’ polyclinics according to the Barbados Association of Pharmacy Owners (BAPO).
The proof, says the group, is in the “multitudes of prescriptions coming out of the polyclinic setting with patients saying the clinics don’t have their medications”.
This is according to a statement made by the President of BAPO David Lewis who has insisted that this dire situation is likely to affect the health of Barbadians.
The Ministry of Health in Barbados was also recently in the news when distributors of medications in the island decided that they will not be supplying the island’s lone hospital until debts owed by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital were paid to them in full.
At that time, Minister of Health, John Boyce indicated that the Government would examine a number of solutions including but not restricted to paying part of the debts, as well as looking at alternative and/or substitute medications.
Boyce told the Barbadian public that while the hospital faced a budgetary cut of circa $30 million dollars as outlined by the Budgetary Proposals of August 2013, Barbadians would still “be afforded the same good quality of care from the QEH and polyclinics to which they have become accustomed”. The wide range of cuts across various Ministries along with the announcement of the impending layoff of 3 000 public workers were announced in January by the Minister of Finance in a press conference.
BAPO is meanwhile concerned about the millions of dollars owed to the pharmaceutical suppliers and said this may have longstanding implications for the dispensing of drugs on the island. BAPO insisted that presently this problem has led to a severe shortage of some critical medications island-wide.
