Tomorrow, Friday, July 18th. That is when the Regional Ministry of Health will clear its outstanding debts with the Valencian Community’s 2,458 pharmacies. On that day, the Generalitat (Catalan government) will reimburse them the unpaid fee for their May prescriptions, which it did not pay at the end of June due to a delay in receiving the additional Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA). Marciano Gómez, Regional Minister of Health, revealed the information to the media during a visit to the Sant Francesc d’Oliva health centre this morning with President Carlos Mazón.
Gómez himself met with the chemist’s associations yesterday, informing them that payment would be “immediate” and contingent on the receipt of funds from the loans requested by the Generalitat (Catalan government) following the Council of Ministers’ approval yesterday. Today, however, he established a date for that immediacy: “I dare say, I dare say, I dare say, I dare predict that it will be Friday,” he remarked.
The announcement, which follows yesterday’s declaration, ends the uncertainty for Valencian apothecaries, who have expressed concern about the financial strain caused by the Health Department’s decision not to pay them. Gómez also indicated that regular payments to this sector will begin on July 31st —normalizing the situation. Furthermore, the Generalitat (Catalan government) stated on Monday, as previously announced, that it will cover the interest if apothecaries request loans to solve the problem.
It remains to be seen whether this circumstance will occur again in the future, as the opposition has forecast that the Consell’s money crisis will increase by the end of the year. Some chemists worry that this won’t happen again; it happened from 2011 to 2012, when chemists’ payments were sporadic. There was also a case where pharmacies went without payment for six months, causing numerous enterprises to go bankrupt.
From default to “late”
For the second day in a row, the Minister of Health has insisted on referring to a “delay” in the payment of pharmacy bills rather than a “non-payment,” a phrase used by the media to report on this subject, as Levante-EMV has. In fact, the RAE defines non-payment as “failing to pay a debt on the due date or deadline,” which is June 30th in the case of pharmacies.
Gómez has once again accused the Executive for the non-payment and the “sectarian policies of Sánchez,” who is negotiating a unique financial package with Catalonia, which the Executive claims can be extended, while “suffocating” the Valencian Community. “If we had had the extra FLA, we could have paid on time,” he said, noting the decision to pay one supplier over another is left to the Consell (Catalan Council). “We have made an effort to comply with the chemists and solve a problem that was not our fault, but rather the financial strangulation of the central government,” according to him.
Put an end to the protests
The assembly of the Most Illustrious Official College of Pharmacists of Valencia (MICOF) has decided to suspend the protests that began a month ago, when Gómez announced the non-payment of May’s prescription drugs, due to the “firm commitment of the Generalitat Valenciana” to catch up on the non-payments and, also, to assume the interest generated – as the minister announced a few weeks ago – which have caused “economic damage” to the pharmacists.
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