In a statement, the municipality was surprised by “the timing of the move of the Pharmacists Syndicate, Jean Salloum, who is revolting against corruption,” as it put it, calling on him to “cleanse his union first of some merchants and monopolists and prevent them from exploiting the patients’ pain.”
For his part, the mayor of Ghobeiry, Maan Al-Khalil, said in an interview with Al-Akhbar: “The aim of the Pharmacists Syndicate’s tour today is to implement an agenda of sanctions against the municipality and not to support dispensaries by encouraging them to import medicines and sell them at reduced prices to the poor,” saying that “the municipality seeks through Some associations or donors to provide medicines for free to patients, and this is our right in these difficult circumstances.”
He added: “We are not drug dealers and are not enthusiastic about introducing alternative medicines to dispensaries and health care centers, but we have no solutions left. People’s health first and foremost.”
Al-Khalil concluded: “During the era of the former Minister of Health, Hamad Hassan, and before the subsidy for medicines was lifted, the municipality revealed that a number of pharmacists had monopolized medicines and hidden them from shelves in warehouses, but the matter was wrapped up by the union, and therefore we apologize today for receiving the inspection if the Pharmacists Syndicate accompanied it.”