Watch: IVF Clinic To Close For Six Months For ‘Necessary’ Renovation And Upgrade, Health Minister Says
Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela has declared that the national IVF clinic will be closed for six months for a necessary renovation and in the meantime, the government will outsource the procedure to the private sector.
“Our IVF clinic needs to be renovated. We need it to grow and we need it to be equipped with technology that benefits the country,” Abela said earlier today.
Abela was responding to a question regarding a judicial protest filed by the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) that sought to stop the government from outsourcing IVF procedures to the private sector.
The association explained that it had no problem with involving private sector operators to cut waiting lists but that should not be done at the expense of ignoring obligations.
Abela responded by saying that every initiative by the Health Ministry is done with the intent to put the patient first; one of these initiatives is the expansion and upgrade of the IVF clinic.
“However, until we do that, the service needs to stop, we’re thinking that the service needs to stop for around six months,” he said before assuring that the ministry will not deny treatment to people who have been waiting to have children.
“We will be the shield of these people.”
He went on to say that he has consulted with the MAM as well as other unions a number of times, maintaining that transparency is not an issue.
“When the time came for us to announce the expansion plan for Mater Dei, I didn’t just discuss the presentation to expand the hospital with them and every employee at Mater Dei, which I’m sure everyone will agree is not the usual procedure, but before I went to Cabinet I discussed all of these things with everyone I believe I had to.”
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