The Ombudman’s decision to uphold a complaint over an application to open a pharmacy in Burmarrad has been sent to Parliament after health authorities refused to process it.
Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino ruled in favour of a businessman who wanted to open a pharmacy in Burmarrad but was being blocked.
Authorities were refusing to process the application because Burmarrad did not fall within regulations governing the issuing of pharmacy licences.
However, the Ombudsman ruled that this interpretation was “restrictive, unreasonable, incorrect and did not respect the scope and spirit of the regulations”.
Furthermore, this interpretation did not give “due consideration to the interests of Burmarrad residents”.
Despite his recommendation for the health authorities to process the application “as soon as possible” in July this year, the health authorities insisted they could not.
Chief Justice Emeritus Said Pullicino, therefore, published his report on the case and referred the matter to Speaker Michael Frendo since the issue “affects a large section of the population”.
The complaint was filed by a businessman, identified in the Ombudsman’s reports as “N.N.” who complained that the licensing authority was refusing to issue a licence to open a pharmacy in Burmarrad because it did not classify it as a town or village as laid down in licensing regulations.
The definition of “town and village” in the rules regulating the issuance of pharmacy licences mentions “a locality, including all hamlets and outlying areas, having a local council or committee so designated under the Local Councils Act and qualifying as such under this Act... ”
The businessman argued that although Burmarrad did not fall within these parameters in the regulations of 2007, it did now that the locality has its own administrative committee which falls under the jurisdiction of St Paul’s Bay Local Council.
The Ombudsman upheld this argument, adding that the “committee” mentioned in the regulations should also cover administrative committees, despite the fact that these are elected by people and not appointed by the local council.