The shadow minister for Gozo lashed out at the government on Wednesday for having conducted a cover-up after a patient at Gozo hospital died because a helicopter was not available to transfer him to Mater Dei Hospital on time.

It was a disgrace that two months since the tragedy, Steward Healthcare, as operator of the Gozo hospital and its helicopter service, was more intent on hiding what had happened, Chris Said told Parliament.

And it was even worse that the government had become an accomplice to this cover-up.

Speaking on the adjournment, Dr Said recalled that exactly two months ago, at 10am on August 24, a man was admitted to Gozo hospital showing symptoms of a heart attack. At 10.30am doctors ordered that he be rushed to Malta by helicopter. But the helicopter was not available and the man was admitted to the Gozo hospital’s Coronary Care Unit.

Dr Said said that at 11.15am he was informed by hospital workers that there was panic at the hospital when it transpired that the helicopter was not available.
At 1pm he revealed what was happening on Facebook.

A few minutes later the hospital communications officer tried to belie him, also on Facebook.

At 4.30pm the patient suffered another heart attack. By this time, seven hours later, the helicopter had finally arrived. The hospital CEO personally took pictures of the patient being taken to the helicopter, apparently being more intent on covering up the situation than solving it.

But because the helicopter arrived seven hours late, the patient passed away.

This, Dr Said pointed out, had not been the only incident of this nature. One such incident even involved a government MP who had also needed to be rushed to the hospital in Malta. He thankfully survived.

Dr Said recalled that after Steward Healthcare denied shortcomings leading to the patient’s death, Health Minister Chris Fearne appointed an internal inquiry headed by Prof Cacciotolo. The report was concluded on September 17 and the government issued a three-paragraph statement saying that no shortcomings in the helicopter service were found.

The inquiry itself was a cover-up, Dr Said said. It was not aimed at revealing the truth and correcting the shortcomings, but covering up.

It appeared that whoever conducted the inquiry had not spoken to the workers at the hospital emergency department. No one had spoken to him either, despite the fact that he had revealed what happened, and could give more details. He could indicate, for example that a minute in the hospital file, written at 10.30am said ‘Helicopter not available’. Was this shown to Prof Cacciotolo?

Alas, the hospital administration was more intent on finding out who was leaking information, but this was not just a single person, Dr Said said.

Other deaths had also been caused by negligence at the hospital and Gozo was suffering, Dr Said said. He was therefore challenging Mr Fearne to immediately publish the inquiry report in full so that one could see how it was conducted.

Secondly, the minister should say whether the patient file said, twice, ‘helicopter not available’. If so, what would he do?

Did the minister know about a circular issued days before the incident had said that the helicopter would not be available? So how could the inquiry say there was no shortcoming in the helicopter service.

Would Mr Fearne confirm that this was not the first time this had happened?

Big subsidy for a defective service

Dr Said observed that Steward Healthcare were getting €1.2 million from the government for a helicopter service that was defective. The service was previously provided round the clock by the AFM. The AFM used to be paid €800 for every trip. Over a 10-year period there were an average of 35 patients per year who were flown from Gozo, costing just over €30,000. And now the government was spending €1.2 million for a defective service which was causing people to die. And the government acted like nothing was happening.

No helipad at the hospitals in Gozo and Malta

Another issue was the helipad. Up to some time there was a helipad at Gozo hospital and another at Mater Dei. Now there was neither a helipad at Gozo hospital nor at Mater Dei, meaning that travel time had increased by about one hour as patients were ferried by ambulance to and from the helipads in Gozo and Malta. This was a situation which needed to be rectified as well.

All this, Dr Said concluded, stemmed from the cardinal mistake made when Gozo’s only hospital was privatised. The PN was not against private hospitals, but it was against privatisation of Gozo’s only hospital.

A lot had been promised when the Gozo hospital was privatised three years ago. Gozitans were promised a new 400-bed hospital within two years. And yet, three years on, not even a final development application for the new hospital had been filed with the Planning Authority.

To make a bad situation worse, the medical consultants at Gozo hospital were leaving, even those who were Gozitan, something which did not happen in the past. A radiologist had also been absent for months.

The government had promised a new anatomy centre, yet what had happened was that a site built for a child development centre by the former government was converted for this purpose. And the children’s needs were ignored.

Dr Said said he was appealing to Mr Fearne not to let the medical sector in Gozo deteriorate even more. The minister was in time to remedy the mistake made when the hospital was privatised. He was also appealing to the Minister for Gozo and Gozitan MPs not be accomplices in a cover-up to the detriment of the wellbeing of the people of Gozo.