Pharmacists’ ‘patience has run out’

Pharmacists’ patience “has run out” over the issue of opening hours, pharmaceutical association chairman Ploutarchos Georgiades said on Friday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, he said his frustration is rooted in a court decision to exempt a small number of pharmacies from the laws regulating pharmacies’ opening hours.

He said pharmacists have now been waiting two years for a final decision to be made, working within the law, while pharmacies subject to the interim order have been able to set their own working hours.

“We have been waiting for two years for the court to make a decision. This was as a result of there being illegal acts committed by other colleagues who saw others working outside the regular hours,” he said.

He explained that the decree on pharmacies’ opening hours determines working hours as well as timetables set over longer periods.

“They are interrelated, one cannot exist without the other,” he said, adding that for this reason, the issue of which pharmacies would open and at what time had snowballed.

“For this reason, we ask that the court’s decision be issued as soon as possible because to be able to make an exemption to the decree, the decision must be issued in three months and not two years,” he said.

With this in mind, he said his association now expects to meet with officials from the health ministry “to see if their next steps satisfy us or not”.

“We do not want to take revenge on the world. We want to introduce order into specialised professions which require immediate intervention. There must be regulation, the state must understand this and not leave it unchecked,” he said.

He added, “we must understand that patients must know pharmacies’ opening hours, where to go, and where to be served after the pharmacies close.”

Pharmacists have threatened to refuse to work in evenings and on public holidays as a result of the dispute, with October 1 – the day on which they are set to transfer to their winter opening hours schedule – the date set as the beginning of their planned action.

Pharmaceutical services director Elena Panagiotopoulou had said a meeting would take place between the government and pharmacists with the aim of solving the issue.

“We will need to find how this issue can be solved. They need to stay open so people can get the medicines that they need,” she said.

Health Minister Michael Damianos also spoke on the matter on Wednesday, attempting to assuage concerns.

“I assure you that the issue is being handled by the pharmaceutical services and a solution will be found. People should not worry that under any circumstances they will be left without medicines,” he said.