Health Ministry Lists 18 Reforms Malta’s Doctors Association Has Opposed, Obstructed Or Slowed Down
The Health Ministry has published a list of 18 reforms that the Malta Medical Association has opposed, obstructed or slowed down in what looks to be an internal spat boiling over into the public arena.
This comes after the MAM accused the ministry of using the medical profession as a scapegoat for its “shortcomings and squandering of public funds” in light of the inquiry findings into Stephen Mangion’s death.
In response, Health Minister Jo-Etienne Abela categorically denied the claims while the ministry said that the association is “very economical with the truth and are persisting in the confrontational and negative attitude that they have adopted over the past six months”.
“They are deviously suggesting that a Ministerial Inquiry that was set up at law to scrutinise care pathways, is somehow undermining the medical profession. Therefore, in the spirit expressed by the recently published conclusions of magisterial inquiry, it is high time that doctors, patients and society at large are made aware of the obstructive stance that MAM has persistently adopted in MAM-Government interactions.”
This stance, the government said, is affecting the transformation of healthcare services and society’s expectations of delivery of care.
“Therefore, the Ministry would like to inform the public that MAM representatives have opposed, obstructed or slowed down the following reforms, that are aimed at putting safe patient care first:”
1. Assessment by first senior medical contact in the emergency departments
2. Consultant assignation to emergency patients
3. The replenishment of Emergency Doctors at the Gozo General Hospital Casualty
4. The outsourcing to the private sector of emergency services for non-life threatening conditions to allow the Emergency Department to concentrate on life-threatening conditions
5. The transformation of Mater Dei level -1 floor into a “hot-floor” that will obviate corridor wards that Government deems not patient-worthy
6. The establishment of a medical high dependency unit in the newly appointed M10
7. The setting up of an ambulatory care hospital in St Luke’s, to relocate day care facilities, dental surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, out of Mater Dei
8. The setting up of an out-patients clinic facility in Karin Grech Hospital
9. Investment in a large state-of -the-art Mother and Child Unit in the current out-patient block at Mater Dei Hospital – this would free space in Mater Dei to allow an increase of bed-space for acute older-person admissions
10. The integration of mental health into physical health
11.The inclusion of patient advocacy representatives (Malta Health Network) on medical regulatory/disciplinary bodies
12. The development of acute psychiatric services in Mater Dei Hospital to hone services and abolish the stigma that patients and health care professionals still suffer to this day
13. Relocation of non-invasive ventilation services to a new suggested site
14. Re-emergence of plastic surgery as a sub-speciality with its own dedicated ward
15. The immediate provision of a six-month out-sourced IVF services to allow enlargement and refurbishment of the Mater Dei ART clinic (outsourcing was awarded at a cost that is significantly lower than recent equivalent expenses at Mater Dei Hospital)
16. The inclusion of patient advocacy representatives (e.g. Malta Health Network) into medical regulatory/disciplinary bodies
17. Investment in extra twilight CT and MR scan sessions to provide a 24/7, 7-days a week radiology service at Mater Dei and Gozo General Hospital, paid on a per-case basis, in order to address and abolish current waiting-lists
18. Resistance to unit sub-specialising e.g. gastroenterology department to, amongst other things, address out-patient waiting lists of close to 6,000 patients.
It closed the somewhat unusual statement by saying the ministry remains open to constructive discussion as is the case with the other trade unions.
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