The “medieval” methods used to store and distribute public medicines should be updated by next year, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia said yesterday.

“This is something we have taken extremely seriously. We have already made some fragmented improvements,” Dr Farrugia said.

The Pharmacy of Your Choice (POYC) system caters for some 112,000 patients who use their government prescription (kartuna roża) for free medication from specified outlets.

However, many of the 214 community pharmacies enrolled in the POYC programme have had to turn away patients due to a gap in the supply of certain medications.

Dr Farrugia said the creation of a centralised storage facility would be among the first “facelifts” for the programme.

The new facility, due to be finalised next month, will be housed in a disused factory at the San Ġwann industrial estate near Mater Dei Hospital.

Medicines are currently stored in specialised facilities in Madliena, Marsa, St Luke’s Hospital and a host of public clinics across the island.

The minister was addressing a press conference ahead of World Pharmacist Day at the University of Malta’s Valletta campus.

The event is geared towards spreading awareness on pharmacists’ evolving role within the community and the industry.

Dr Farrugia explained that one of the main problems facing the industry was the “obstacle course” of unnecessary bureaucracy in the supply chain.

“We are streamlining this process and creating new channels for distribution to minimise the excess bureaucracy. I have faith that this will be a healthy system once more,” he said.

Describing the inventory systems used by public clinics as “soiled”, Dr Farrugia reiterated that a new IT system would revolutionise the struggling sector.

“This will be cutting edge. We can accept nothing less. We will begin work on this specialised IT system very soon,” he said, adding that the number of out of stock medicines had been significantly reduced in recent weeks.

Next month, the Health Ministry will be holding a public consultation on the POYC system. Among the topics discussed will be the electoral pledge for a door-to-door medicines delivery system, Dr Farrugia said.