Editorial: Turning the page on hospitals’ saga

The privatisation of the management of three public hospitals has been an unmitigated failure. Not only did it cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros but it also failed to upgrade the medical services the country urgently needs. It is time to turn the page on this painful saga.

The Foundation for Medical Services has announced that it has approached Italconsult, an Italian management consultancy firm, to review the master plans for St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General hospitals. This exercise will cost taxpayers €2.3 million.

It is pertinent to ask whether we should spend more money to clean up the mess left by the hospitals’ failed project.

The state of the public health system is approaching a crisis level. Waiting lists for non-critical medical interventions may have improved slightly but remain far too long, affecting many patients’ quality of life.

The emergency department at Mater Dei is hardly coping despite efforts to divert some non-urgent cases to private hospitals or to offer telemedicine alternatives. 

The number of inpatient beds at Mater Dei is often insufficient to meet demand.  The hospital was never intended to accommodate such a rapid increase in population, while the local population continues to age rapidly. 

Stopgap measures have helped but they can never be enough to prevent further deterioration in the level of services the public has a right to expect from the public health system funded by its taxes.

For instance, the Paola Health Centre has been plagued by delays and resource shortages. It has only started functioning adequately in recent months.

Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela had floated the idea of turning the Guardamangia area, which includes St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals, into a “health village”, with all non-clinical services moved out of Mater Dei. So far, this is just a pious intention.

St Luke’s premises are in a state of total disrepair and not fit to accommodate any medical-related service.

A €16.5 million tender to lease a building for a rehabilitation hospital to house patients from Karin Grech was issued earlier this year. Still, the project’s completion is at best many months away.

Despite the invaluable services and dedication of hospital medical and paramedical staff, the human cost of this strategic and operational management failure is being underestimated.

Hundreds of hospital staff are under intense stress to cope with the rising demand for public health services and this is affecting their morale and, at times, their mental health.

It is time to turn the page on the hospitals saga and we hope that one day those responsible for this unhealthy mess will pay for their deeds.

It is time to put patients’ interests first and focus on upgrading the medical services that the public has a right to expect.

The Italconsult review will undoubtedly identify the new investment needed to expand medical service capacity and standards to meet the demand resulting from a substantial increase in population over the last decade and the rapid ageing of the local population.

This investment will include the need for new or refurbished hospital premises, medical equipment and human resources. This review should also examine the best project management model to adopt, to ensure that past governance and management failures are not repeated.

Inevitably, the cost of upgrading the public medical services that the country needs will be substantial. The least that the public must expect is that the hospitals upgrade project will be managed much more professionally than the failed Vitals-Stewards fiasco.