Health Ministry Does Not Have Financial Details On Cost Of COVID-19 On Malta’s Healthcare System
The total cost the Maltese state incurred while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown, and will forever remain unknown.
Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed that he is unable to reveal the total cost of COVID-19 on Malta’s healthcare sector following a parliamentary question from PN MP Robert Cutajar.
“Details on finances tied to the recovery of every, individual patient in the health sector are not kept,” Fearne said. “It is difficult to determine such a figure.”
Questions sent to the Ministry for Health revealed that while the ministry quantifies the cost of procedures, bed stays, medical treatments, and investigations, ‘bills’ are not compiled for specific individual patients.
So while costs are recorded in a general sense, no records are kept on an individual patient basis.
During the parliamentary session, Fearne added that an overnight stay at the Intensive Care Unit of Mater Dei Hospital costs anywhere between €1,325 to €1,500.
Up until 20th May, the Maltese healthcare sector saw 352 persons recover from serious complications of the infection in ITU.
That means that while ITU recoveries alone tallied an expense of up to €528,000, not much information is currently known regarding the state’s expenses on medicines such as tests, vaccines, anti-virals, intra-venous drips, and any other medicinals used to fight COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Ministry employed many new people to help manage the contact-tracing system.
What do you make of this?