THE EDITOR, Sir:

Please give me a small space in your column to call the attention of the relevant authorities to the the shortage of drugs and the absence of pharmacists at the Isaac Barrant Health Centre in St Thomas. For sometime now, patients have been told 'no pharmacist today', and because of that, many of them are forced to wonder if they should even make the trip to Morant Bay.

As for the shortage of drugs, it is at its worst. Patients sometimes receive only one medication out of five and have to travel all the way to Morant Bay from some far distances.

I am very concerned about the plight of these patients because most of them are NIS pensioners and when one thinks of the high transportation cost which they have to pay out of their meagre pensions, there is very little left for survival.

I am calling on someone within the medical service to take a look at the situation at the Isaac Barrant Health Centre and see, most of all, how best some relief can come to these people.

I am, etc.,

J.A. Bailey

St Thomas