A push to build a pharmaceutical industry is being overshadowed by persistent complaints from patients waiting hours at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital pharmacy, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw has told the House of Assembly.

While welcoming the Barbados Medical Products Bill as a major industrial development tool she warned that the government must also deal with the “elephant in the room”.

Bradshaw described seeing patients, particularly elderly people, waiting for hours to collect medication, often with little movement in the dispensing process.