The government has made many promises over the years to curb the ever rising cost of medicines, which are expensive by the administration’s own admission, yet nothing has been done, said Opposition Leader Alfred Sant yesterday.

Dr Sant was speaking during a press conference held outside the Floriana health centre. He said that the government was blaming external factors for the cost of medicines, yet had done nothing to sort out the problem.

Dr Sant said that in July 2005, the government had commissioned a report on the issue and in August said that it would be implementing a better system to ensure that medicines were procured at a cheaper price. In January 2006, he said, the Health Ministry admitted that prices were indeed more expensive than they should have been and that the government said it was going to intervene directly in a bid to stop the upward trend in prices.

“In May, parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech said that the government was again going to take action. Nothing happened and the same declaration was made again in September. This was followed up by a declaration by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who said the government was trying to solve the problem. Again, nothing happened,” said Dr Sant.

Dr Sant said it was very clear that inflation on medicines in Malta was on the increase. “The government is blaming the importation process and it is quite clear that it (the administration) is not keeping its promises to tackle the problem, which is resulting in hardships and less spending power for Maltese families,” he said.

The Opposition Leader said that year after year (October to October), the rate of inflation of medicines was higher than the Eurozone average. He quoted National Statistics Office and Eurostat figures and said that between 2004-2005, the annual percentage increase in health costs for Malta stood at 4.9 per cent compared to 1.5 per cent in the Eurozone. Between 2005 and 2006 the increase was of 4.2 per cent compared to 1.7 per cent in Europe while between 2006 and 2007 the increase was of 2.5 per cent compared to 1.4 per cent in the Eurozone. Dr Sant said that the cumulative total was of 12.04 per cent in Malta compared to 4.67 per cent in Europe.

Dr Sant said that an MLP government would commission a report on the prices of medicines every six months and would also revise the list of medicines which are given free to the elderly in a bid to soften the hardships they contend with. He also said that the inflation rate on clothes, medicines and food were not justified and said that the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development should have put more effort into finding tools to combat inflation.

Dr Sant said that EU statistics have shown that the inflation rate for clothes was six times as high as the bloc average while food carries a rate which is twice the European one with medicines lining up at between two and three times as expensive.

Taking a question from the press, Dr Sant said: “I still have not received any feedback from Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on my proposal to have serious televised debates prior to the election. I will not call him a chicken, I leave derogatory remarks to the Nationalist Party,” he said.

Answering a question put by this newspaper on the government’s explanation for inflated medicines prices, he said: “The PN merely looks at the symptoms of inflation and not the causes. First you must identify the cause to be able to tackle the symptoms,” said the Labour leader.