17 pharmacies not getting medicine

PROVIDERS have stopped selling medications to 17 pharmacies in the Alicante Province.

This is due to the pharmacists not being able to pay pending bills as the Regional Government has not paid them, according to Jaime Carbonell, the president of the Alicante pharmaceutical college COFA.

The debt owed by the Valencian Government to pharmacies in Alicante, Valencia and Castellon provinces is around €460million for pending bills from February, March, April and May.

Of this €160million is owed to Alicante establishments.

Unemployment in pharmacies in the province has reached 98.8 per cent, according to Carbonell, as reported in Spanish newspaper #I#El Mundo#I#.

“We want to continue dispensing medicine, but we do not have any money. We have to pay the Social Security and the Tax Agency, the banks and our employees,” said Carbonell.

“Each month, the Valencian health sector receives €110million from the State to pay the pharmacies.”

However, this money is possible used to pay “the banks or the debt of the Generalitat.”

Carbonell has insisted that the Regional Health Minister Luis Rosado establish a “genuine and acceptable” payment plan.

“It is imperative that we get paid for February, and all the months.”

If this payment plan is not presented the pharmacies will “do what they have to”.

He added that he is “waiting” for the call of the Regional Vice-President Jose Ciscar or the President Alberto Fabra, to come to a solution.