Edition 72
www.thecourier.es
Friday, July 6, 2012
BITTER PILL
Angry pharmacists tear up the script in Alicante strike FED-UP pharmacists in the Alicante region have called an indefinite strike as the dispute over prescription payments reaches crisis point.
ROCKIN’ AND RAVIN’: Louise on stage with her dad Malcolm
By AMANDA BLACK
medications sold on prescription as far back as February. Meeting in Alicante, some 600 pharmacists voted for the strike and a number of other tough measures to put pressure Prolonged strike action and other tough on the health authority to pay up. measures agreed this week could cause real They agreed that anyone without money problems for patients requiring medication, should inform their drugs supplier that they with closed pharmacies, drug shortages and will no longer pay, opening up the possibility higher costs for customers on the cards. of companies withholding drugs which could “We did not want to get to this,” said the lead to medication shortages. president of the Pharmaceutical College of And, if money’s still not paid by July 30, Alicante, Jaime Carbonell, “but people are pharmacists will start to charge customers desperate. We are all desperate. We have the full cost of prescription medicine. endured the unspeakable, but no more.” “The last time they paid us was a month The pharmacists have been battling the ago when we were paid for January. Since health department over late payments for then nothing,” said Carbonell. “We are owed from February until now. months. They are currently owed money for That is five months. It is terrible. There is no other community in which the payment of pharmacists has been THE number of unemployed in Spain dropped nearly delayed so much.” 100,000 last month - the biggest fall since records began. Carbonell insisted he would Some 2.10 per cent – or 98,853 – fewer Spaniards were “be in contact with patients out of work in June than the previous month. groups and will explain what It was the sharpest fall on record for a single month since is happening to them”. the government began collecting job data in 1996. As the Alicante pharmacists The news came as a glimmer of hope after months of grim were debating measures to figures, during which unemployment rose above 24 per cent force payment, Valencia’s and more than half of under-25s were out of work. health minister Luis Rosado Despite the positive sign, social security chief Tomás appealed for responsibility Burgos said the government was still “cautious.” from the sector, giving assur“We have to wait to see if this becomes an overall tenden- ances that he was trying to cy,” echoed deputy labour minister Engracia Hidalgo. speed up payments.
Jobless figures plummet
By DONNA GEE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL tribute singer Louise Halsall has been given a huge lift in her battle to recover from horrific leg injuries – by the Costa Blanca’s fellow stage artistes. The 33-year-old roadaccident victim, known to show goers as Rockin’ Lou Lou, suffered a compound leg fracture when a car ploughed into the back of her father’s 800cc Kawasaki Cruiser motorbike. Dad Malcolm Heaton – Ravin’ Rupert to his fans - suffered only cuts and bruises in the 11am accident, which occurred in Benijuzar as he and
Thanks a pillion! Stars give crash girl Louise a lift Louise were looking for a café in order to quench their thirst. Los Altos resident Malcolm, whose own record-breaking Elvis tribute act dates back to 1966, recalled: “This car just came from nowhere and Louise’s leg was so badly broken that the bone was protruding through the skin. The car driver was
Spanish and although the police and authorities presumably know who the driver is, we have been given no information at all. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence.’’ Louise is unlikely to sing again until next year. But Malcolm, whose bike suffered
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