The Minister of Social Affairs ordered the disbursement of the pharmacist's fees to recall the motivating party
Assam Red announces the suspension of payments to private pharmacies in response to a suspension of work in the form of the paying party amid accumulated debts totaling 200 million dinars.
Minister of Social Affairs, Assam Red announced today 5 November 2026 in Tunis the suspension of the disbursement of financial dues for private pharmacies and linking their reimbursement with the lifting of the work suspension to the incentive system. The announcement was made during a joint session of the Health Committee, the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and the National Council of Authorities and Regions dedicated to discussing the ongoing crisis in the pharmaceutical sector.
The Minister stressed that the government will not dispose of private pharmacies' debts until after the sectoral agreement is reactivated and the incentive party system to guarantee the rights of social insurers is resumed. He explained that the decision to freeze comes in the face of a suspension of service that forces insurers to pay the full value of medicines in cash at pharmacies before their expenses are later recovered at the fund's centers.
In return, the pharmacist's professional structures demand that she repay her accumulated debts and arrears to social funds in order to maintain her financial balance. The Tunisian Union of Private Pharmacy Owners assured that liquidity provision became necessary to enable pharmacies to deliver on their pledges to drug distributors and continue supplying pharmaceutical products, warning of the repercussions of the crisis on the stability of drug distribution.
The roots of the dispute lie in the accumulation of overdue debts and receivables for pharmacy interest, which rose to 200 million dinars with payment delays exceeding 180 days compared to the contractual term set at 14 days. This situation prompted the union to approve the suspension of work in the motivating party format beginning at the beginning of November following the notification of the National Fund for Sickness Insurance and the Ministry on 19 October, following the failure of previous interim agreements on the debt schedule concluded during January and July of the same year.
The syndicate is approaching the NFSA to arrange technical procedures for handling patients' files and facilitating their access to medication, in preparation for negotiations on a new mechanism for scheduling delays and ending the suspension of the agreement.