PN: hospital tent isn’t the issue, pledges are

The Opposition does not believe the Health Minister should resign over his decision to erect a tent at Mater Dei Hospital but it is expecting him to deliver on his pre-electoral pledges.

“Resignation is the easiest route. What the country is waiting for is the implementation of what was promised,” the PN’s health spokesman Claudio Grech told a press conference yesterday.

Last week’s decision to install a canopy outside the hospital’s Day Care Unit to take a potential influx of influenza patients was deemed to be “wrong” by the Prime Minister’s Office, which ordered the structure removed.

Yesterday Mr Grech reiterated his call for a parliamentary committee on health, saying the Opposition was not being populist and wanted to collaborate with the government.

He said yesterday’s press conference had originally been planned for Friday but was postponed following the controversy stirred by the tent.

Mr Grech admitted healthcare had not been a “bed of roses” under the Nationalist government, adding that a bed shortage was not unique to Malta.

One solution, he said, would be to tackle the problem of social cases at Mater Dei, where unfortunately some people were “parking their elderly relatives”.

Mr Grech presented four problems related to the issue and their possible solutions. One problem was demographic: the rise in the elderly population. By 2040, more than a quarter of the population would be 65 years and older.

The second problem was a disjointed health service where tertiary health was separated from acute care.

There was also a lack of investment in bed availability and, in this year’s estimates, the government did not plan new services for the care of the elderly, Mr Grech said.

Resignation is the easiest route. The country is waiting for what was promised

This contrasted with the creation of 1,011 beds for the elderly over the past five years.

Meanwhile, the government reduced capital investment in rehabilitation services by 25 per cent from last year.

Mr Grech said the solutions should not be short-term,knee-jerk reactions such as the decision to set up a canopy or the insensitive decision to stop the electroconvulsive therapy service provided to psychiatric patients, which has been transferred from Mater Dei to Mount Carmel Hospital.

The government, Mr Grech said, needed to outsource to the private sector: daycare surgeries could be carried out in private clinics, something which used to be done in the past to ease pressure on Mater Dei.

Furthermore, all vacant beds at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly and other homes should be filled by social cases from Mater Dei. Meanwhile, the government should also engage with NGOs who carry out community care with the elderly.

Lastly, the financial estimates should be revised to include an allocation for rehabilitation services, Mr Grech said.

Following the press conference, the Richmond Foundation expressed concern at the transfer of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) because, it said, Mount Carmel was still feared by many people and these patients were likely to refuse or discontinue this essential treatment.

The foundation was also concerned that this move reversed recent strategic decisions where psychiatric services were mainstreamed and provided through health centres and community outlets.

The provision of ECT should have followed suit.

“Mental health services should not be regarded as the Cinderella of the health services. Richmond Foundation urges the authorities to revise such a decision.

“Lack of a clear strategy is likely to lead to management by crisis and short-sighted decisions,” the foundation said.