Pharmacists in the Balearic Islands have announced that patients must now pay for their prescription medicines up front and individually ask the regional government for their money back, after the debt owed to the pharmacists by the regional health service became “unsustainable”.
The pharmacists guild say that they are owed over 90 million euros by the state system, and that the regional government has missed deadlines in paying the back debts. They say that they can no longer continue subsidizing the state system and so patients must pay the full retail price for their medicines, and ask the government for their money back.