Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1478813
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2022 OPINION 11 Denise Borg Manche The nightmares when dealing with supply chains in the health sector happened to be a Matriarchal Deity, instead of the Patriar- chal one we've all been used to, for around 4,000 years… … all the verbs would still be conjugated in exactly the same way. The new 'Goddess' would still be implored to 'SAVE' King Charles III'; to 'DEFEND his realm'; and to 'SCATTER his enemies, and MAKE them fall: CONFOUND their poli- tics, FRUSTRATE their knav- ish tricks", etc., etc. (See? I told you there were parts of the original anthem, that – for some obscure reason - are no longer sung today…) This leaves us with only two instances, in the entire song, where a little 'gender-reassign- ment surgery' does need to be applied. One: the constant ref- erences to 'Queen' (which now have to be changed to 'King')… and two, all the pronouns relat- ed to that noun (basically: 'he/ she', 'his/hers' and 'him/her'.) And… well, that's it. THAT, in a nutshell, is how much this sudden (though hardly unex- pected) 'reversal of biological gender' is likely to affect some- thing as 'anthemic', as 'God Save The Quee… ING!' But that, I fear, only makes the slip-up so much more… unavoidable. For one thing, be- cause of that 'Fawlty Towers' episode I mentioned, above. The fact that there's now only 'one small thing', that you are suddenly expected to avoid mentioning – 'The War', in Basil Fawlty's case; 'The Bi- ological Gender of Britain's Reigning Monarch', in the case of everyone else – only makes matters a lot harder. But for another… because it's also a linguistic dilemma that more or less 'resolves itself'. In fact, that first live rendition of the 'new' British National An- them – on November 21, in Qatar – is likely to resolve it for us, all on its own. For let's face it: how many times are you going to re- peat the line: 'God Save The Queee… ING!' - before it even- tually morphs into the new, 'gender-neutral noun' that it was all along destined to be? 'Quing!' That's what it will almost certainly become, by the final stanza of that perfor- mance. And in time, I reckon the British people will discover that this compromise has more 'benefits', than merely sparing some 70,000 England support- ers a little international embar- rassment... It would also pre-emptive- ly avoid any future slip-ups, of the kind that could easily have happened (but didn't, to be fair) last Tuesday. How was that official announcement again? The one that has like- wise been repeated, for time out of memory, ever since 'Kings and Queens of England' first came into being, all those centuries ago? 'The [King/Queen] is dead! Long Live the [King/Queen]!' Now: that sort of thing is just BEGGING for trouble, you know. What if the announcer suffers a momentary lapsus, and gets his (or her) 'kings and queens' all muddled up? I shudder to even imagine the consequences… Ah, but with our new- ly-coined, gender-neutral noun in place… Hey presto! All those linguistic dilemmas are just… GONE. 'The Quing is dead! Long live the Quing!' Honest- ly: not even Steve Harvey could possibly screw THAT one up… There is, however, a small flipside to all this. Apart from instantly resolving a linguistic gender-problem that (let's face it) is only really 'resolvable' in English, anyway; the resulting compromise would sound a lit- tle… well… SILLY, really. But what the heck! That's a small price to pay, for the peace of mind that comes with know- ing you will never, EVER unwit- tingly offend a reigning British monarch – or even a dead one, for that matter - again! So we may as well all start getting used to it, folks. All to- gether now: "God Save Our Graaa-coius QUING…!" THE healthcare supply chain is a complex glob- al system made from an extensive network. Processes that work collectively ensure medi- cines and other healthcare supplies are manu- factured, distributed, and provided to patients in the same condition that it left the manufac- turing plan. There are various steps involved within the healthcare supply chain that allow patients to maintain their health and obtain vital treatment. The manufacturers, the suppliers from whom we directly procure the medicines, are the first link in the supply chain. Throughout the year many of our European manufacturers have ex- pressed their concern of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) shortages and delays they are facing due to their dependency on Asian suppli- ers. The rapid growth in production costs from raw materials, power supply and labour has also left them with no other option but to revise their production cost structure and thus increase their overall prices. This delay in manufacturing and increase in production costs has a domino effect on the rest of the supply chain and on our expenses, as dis- tributors. For companies like ours who are in the marketing and distribution of healthcare prod- ucts, this delay of bringing the product to market is challenging especially when we have tight de- livery lead times. This obstacle then has a ripple effect leading us to be unable to meet our contractual and moral obligations with the local government and cer- tain patients who would require such medication at specific times. Changes in the ordering pat- terns due to fluctuations in supply and demand of medical commodities, equipment and essen- tial medicines, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has had an impact on the total num- ber of orders we place with our suppliers, thus placed more frequently due to their expiry dates. Taking the governmental orders for medici- nal products as an example, these are nowadays ordered in lower quantities and with more fre- quent deliveries, leading to drastic price increas- es in our freight cost charges. This is due to the overall price rise in logistics which keep going up. These additional costs are all absorbed by the company as government prices on tender cannot be changed. Notwithstanding the various challenges, with the right insight into what's behind the supply chain issues, we as a health sector can identify these gaps. All stakeholders can work together towards im- proving the processes and taking informed deci- sions to ultimately bring the medication to the patient at the right time, price and place. On Tuesday 13 September, The Malta Cham- ber together with EY Malta will be organising the third event in its Industry Focus Series, this time dedicated to the Health Sector. The conference will include two panel discussions; the first panel will tackle matters of the workforce whilst, the sec- ond panel will tackle supply chain and logistical challenges. Register here: https://www.chamber- organizer.com/Calendar/moreinfo_responsive. php?eventid=428620&org_id=MLTA Denise Borg Manche is Tender Business Manager at Vivian Corporation and a member of The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry