“The Community Clinics that will be providing GU medical care are Marsaxlokk Community Clinic, Mellieħa Community Clinic, and the Victoria Health Centre in Gozo,” the start of the Ministry’s response read.

“The preparatory work related to patient pathways and indications for referral has been finalised and Primary Healthcare doctors have been trained according to the level of care that they will be providing.” 

“The service is set to begin in the coming months once procurement of the Point of Care (POC) equipment is finalised.”

POC refers to testing intended to treat serious cases of sexually transmitted diseases as soon as possible and the speech pledged to use it as a means to expand existing services. 

This is not the first time that the government has promised to improve GU services. 

In 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne announced that a number of sexual health services that are currently only available at Mater Dei, will in the future be provided by health centres and clinics across the country. 

That same year it was reported that GU clinics were to be opened in Marsaxlokk and Mellieħa; however, this never happened. 

An expansion in GU clinics and services is absolutely essential in Malta for a host of reasons.

Firstly, only 2% of the population visited Mater Dei’s Genitourinary (GU) clinic in 2019 to get tested for STDs. Since then, the rates of infection continued to climb.

In fact, in 2021, the GU clinic warned that there has been a worrying rise in STIs in Malta among men who reported to have attended group sex parties.

Meanwhile, preventable STDs are also on the increase. In 2021, five people were contracting HIV every month and nearly 800 people found with HPV in 2019.

Besides this, following an episode of Lovin Malta’s Kaxxaturi in July 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne promised to double the headcount of staff at the GU Clinic to 10.

However, Lovin Malta found that half a year later, there are still just five full-time staffers at the GU clinic, including two doctors and a single clerk.

If you’ve been following the news regarding sexual health in Malta you would have noticed a trend of unfulfilled promises and declarations of what will come in the “coming months”, “next six months”, “following year”, and so on. 

Let’s hope that this time, the promises are actualised and the sexual health of the Maltese public is taken seriously and not left in the hands of a singular understaffed GU clinic that is in dire need of help.

Here’s to hoping!

Do you think that GU services will be expanded anytime soon?