Refunding patients who are made to purchase medicines from private pharmacies shows that the PN has chosen to promote a failed system, PL spokeswoman for health Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca announced this afternoon at a press conference.

This would result in the PN not needing to keep its supplies, the PL candidate added. She highlighted that medicines in private pharmacies are normally more expensive, so patients would need to pay for them regardless.

"The Government is not directing its proposal towards patients who are vulnerable,” Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca explained. She argued that there would be some patients unable to pay as they would not have the required income.

PL candidate Chris Fearne argued that the PN's proposal is the first step towards the end of a free healthcare system. He explained that a PL Government would introduce an IT system to monitor what medicines are in and out of stock, thereby dissipating the problem. Dr Fearne stipulated that pharmaceutical companies capable of providing medicine in a 24-hour timeframe would be contacted by Labour should they win the election, to help sort out the problem. Discussing the Homehelp system, he announced that it would be expanded to include others, not just patients with mobility problems.