Government has been told to clear the air over a decision to force TB Cancer and Health to hire a pharmacist - or stop an insulin service for diabetics.

The call came this week from Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley.

"Frankly, the whole thing stinks. There's something beneath the surface that needs to be uncovered," he said.

Government's decision complies with a law which has been around for 24 years, but it has never been enforced at TB Cancer and Health before.

Now Mr. Dunkley and others are wondering why it was being adhered to so suddenly and forcefully that TB Cancer and Health was not even allowed to give out medication in the two weeks before a pharmacist could be hired.

When asked why Cabinet was issuing this directive now when the Pharmacy and Poisons Act had not been complied with in the past, Health Minister Patrice Minors said her concern was only that it had now been done.

"I can't speak to why it was not done in the past," she said on Monday. "It was brought to my attention and was an issue that has been dealt with."

When asked how it came to her attention she said only that it came up in routine discussions.

"It's unfortunate that it became such a political football," she said. "But we are totally in support of the fact that they (TB Cancer and Health) have been successful (in employing a pharmacist)."

TB Cancer and Health president Judy Simons said her association was given no reason for chief medical officer Dr. John Cann's order to "cease and desist" giving medication until the pharmacist could be in place. Dr. Cann has sat on the TB Cancer and Health council for years, Mr. Dunkley said, and up until this point had not enforced the Pharmacy and Poisons Act.

However Ms Simons did say she understood the order came direct from Cabinet.

There is a Cabinet Health Committee consisting of Ms Minors, Finance Minister Eugene Cox and Transport Minister Ewart Brown, Mr. Dunkley said. However, he described it as "secretive", saying: "We never hear reports on what the committee is doing."

He also questioned who was really in charge of the committee. "The Finance Minister, bless his soul, has been ill, and Ms Minors is a new Minister. Is she in charge or is Dr. Brown?"

Dr. Brown is "conflicted in the worst degree" by sitting on the committee, he said. "It would be wise to call on his expertise (as a medical doctor) from time to time but he is clearly in an untenable position."

Stressing that he was not speaking against Dr. Brown and his character, Mr. Dunkley said as a public figure he could not be in such a conflicting position.

The problem with the order to TB Cancer and Health, said Mr. Dunkley, is not that the association is being required to follow the law.

"I don't think anyone would not want to do it," he said. "It's just that they wanted time to follow through without adversely affecting their clients.

"There's a sizeable number of people who really need that stuff. The decision was made to really lay down the law without telling them what was going on." Without a pharmacist the 1,400 diabetic patients who get their medication from the association would have had to go to pharmacies around the Island, sometimes paying as much as three times what they would have paid with TB Cancer and Health.

However the association worked quickly to prevent this and has since acquired a part-time pharmacist to dispense insulin and other diabetic medications until December 1, when a full-time pharmacist will be taken on.

Currently the pharmacist dispenses medication from 11.30 a.m. until 1.30 p.m. Monday through Friday at TB Cancer and Health.

The Royal Gazette also understands Government was relying on media reports to tell the 1,400 patients about the move.

The issue also came up in the House of Assembly last Friday night, with Mr. Dunkley saying there were four registered Government clinics where the practice of using a pharmacist to dispense medications was not always adhered to.

However, Ms Minors said on Monday that the Pharmacy and Poisons Act specifies using a pharmacist or a physician to dispense medication, and said patients meet with physicians in the Government clinics.

Mr. Dunkley said physicians were not at the Government clinics at all times dispensing medication. "If they are doing it for TB they should do it for their clinics as well.

"There is one thing after another that concerns me (in the Health Ministry)," he said. One of those issues includes the report on the hospital carried out by consulting firm Kurron, which Mr. Dunkley believed was now in the hands of the Cabinet.

"I will be asking the Minister some questions about that in the House of Assembly this Friday," he said.