MINISTER of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has committed to putting measures in place to ensure members of the pharmaceutical industry face a shorter waiting time for the registration of drugs.

He said the process is being manually done by limited personnel who complete up to 400 applications per year, resulting in a waiting time of several months.

“We have to fix that… that’s our contribution to the delivery of good health care to the marketplace. I am committing to you that we are going to do something about that… to hasten that process and remove the long wait,” he said.

Dr Tufton was speaking at a ‘Meet the Minister’ luncheon forum, hosted by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Tuesday.

The minister, meanwhile, noted the value of the Government forming partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry to enable increased efficiency and create solutions for issues faced by the stakeholders.

Dr Tufton said the ministry has agreed to establish an advisory group or a monitoring committee to assess the pace of registration and to identify and solve areas of difficulty. He noted that this should be done over the course of the next few weeks.

There are some 400 pharmacies in Jamaica, which employ over 10,000 persons.

Meanwhile, Tufton has invited members of the pharmaceutical industry to partner with the Government in facilitating the National Health Fund’s (NHF) Drug Serv counters in their establishments.

He said the newly installed chairman of the NHF, Christopher Zacca, and his team have been tasked to establish a sub-committee from the board to formulate a partnership with the drug dispenser programme and the private pharmacies, which will see pharmacies allowing the programme to be run through their facilities.

He said that this move is aligned with the Government’s mandate to improve quality access to health care and facilitate access in a timely manner.

“I would like to see those persons who can’t afford it and who have to depend on the Government to support them in terms of drugs have greater choices in where they go to access such drugs and, by extension, waiting less time than they do now at Drug Serv windows,” he said.

Dr Tufton urged the business owners to become engaged in discussions to facilitate this venture.

There are currently 10 Drug Serv locations in Kingston, St Catherine, St Thomas, Manchester, Westmoreland, St Elizabeth and Clarendon.

The Government in 1996 mandated Health Corporation Limited (which was established in 1994) to set up retail pharmacies under the Drug Serv Programme, in order to cushion escalating costs of pharmaceutical products and improve medication compliance for the elderly and persons with chronic illnesses who could not afford vital medication.

In 2011, the NHF took over Health Corporation Limited and started operating the Drug Serv pharmacies.