Nationalise All Private Maltese Hospitals Temporarily And Pay For Doctors’ Hotel Accommodation, Activists Urge
Civil Society Network Malta has called for the temporary nationalisation of private hospitals across Malta and Gozo due to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
The activist group also urged the government to pay for 4- and 5- star accommodation for healthcare professionals currently on the frontline battling the new virus that has spread across the world in what has been called a pandemic.
CSN said the hospitals should be nationalised “under public control so that the numbers of beds can be increased in preparation for the increase of COVID-19 cases that Malta is experiencing currently”.
Thanking Malta’s medical professionals “for the hard and selfless work they are undertaking in one of the most difficult periods in our nation’s recent history,” they said the workers “not only deserve praise but all the support they might need, no matter the cost”.
“CSN sees no reason why the government shouldn’t be providing them with paid-for accommodation in 4- and 5-star hotels as a protective measure for their families.”
The two new recommendations were made this morning.
“CSN is proposing that the beds in private hospitals be put under public control in order to better assist the medical professionals at work.”
They noted that “ordinarily, this would be an exceptional measure, but as we are living in extreme times, this could prove to be a valuable move” and looked towards countries like Spain who have made similar moves.
The activist group urged for more preparation as it believed that “the extreme measures of social distancing are not sustainable in the long run” and “the inevitable relaxation of the social distancing rules under which we are living now” would lead to a further spread of the virus.
“Therefore, if private hospitals are placed under public control now, medical professionals are afforded more time to affect the necessary preparations for the rest of the fight Malta faces in the near future,” they ended.
What do you think of CSN’s suggestions?
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