‘More Of A Prison Than A Hospital’: Rachel Cachia Strongly Criticises State Of Mount Carmel
Rachel Cachia, the CEO and co-founder of the media company VSquared, ripped into the state of Mount Carmel and warned the mental health institution “resembles a prison more than it does a hospital”.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing the same empty words and rhetoric year after year, legislature after legislature,” Rachel said.
“It’s shameful. Mental health in Malta has been forgotten, sidelined and swept under the rug for years. The ‘hospital’ is a disgrace and doesn’t even deserve to be called a hospital but a prison.”
“You have no privacy, not even while showering. They don’t even give patients basic toilet paper. It’s disgraceful. Can you imagine tossing a sick person into a prison? It’s as though these sick people did something wrong and must be punished for their own sickness. It’s as though that’s what they deserve and as though they aren’t patients too, treated like second-class citizens.”
“I also feel sorry for the nurses who have to work in this state.”
“Unfortunately, people close to me have suffered through the atrocities of Mount Carmel, and it saddens me to say that we haven’t taken a single step forward in the past 30 years.”
“There needs to be more awareness on this subject and maybe someone, someday will have the balls to actually get things done.”
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She spoke out after Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela said in a Lovin Malta interview that the doctors’ union MAM was resisting the government’s plan to move patients out of Mount Carmel and into new psychiatric units at Mater Dei.
“They said that it isn’t safe and that they don’t want mental health patients sharing the same space as other patients,” Abela said. “In my eyes, that sort of language is passé. Just as governments change their ideas, these unions must change them too.”
MAM went on to criticise Abela for changing his predecessor Chris Fearne’s plans to build an acute psychiatric facility and outpatients block and instead “cram” five acute psychiatric wards on top of the A&E Department with no outpatients block.
You can watch Lovin Malta’s full interview with Jo Etienne Abela below
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