Health minister Godfrey Farrugia today said that inexperienced doctors in the emergency room will no longer handle patients directly. Rather, they will serve as a “back up” to more experienced doctors.

The minister put the current situation at the Mater Dei emergency room as largely being down to a lack of human resources. He said that more doctors will be brought into the service in the coming months.

Dr Farrugia said that a system of “patient tracking” is also in the offing. This will ensure that no patients will get overlooked or lost in the system.

Speaking during a visit to the pharmacy of your choice (POYC) department, Dr Farrugia said that an audit of the system will be completed in six weeks time. The minister said that the primary challenge of the system is that of out of stock medicines.

The POYC scheme currently serves 110,000 patients in Malta and Gozo, distributing between €1.4 to €1.6 million worth of medicines per year.

Dr Farrugia said that during the run up to the election, 1/3rd of the island was encompassed into the scheme, hinting that it was a bit of a rush job.

The government’s pledge to introduce a medicine home delivery service for those over 70, the immobile and the severely disabled will be factored into either the 2014 or 2015 budget, the health minister said today.