Public health services are deeply personal to most people. Failings in the system can, at best, create unnecessary anxiety and, at worst, lead to avoidable deaths. Understandably, people are angry about the declining standards of public healthcare services.
The government’s recent partnership with three private hospitals aims to address this issue by outsourcing emergency services to ease waiting times at Mater Dei Hospital. With emergency care at the state hospital often weighed down, this initiative is no doubt a step in the right direction, even if the health ministry’s curt press release failed to even mention the three private hospitals involved.
Despite this positive step, just days later, and amidst a mounting health crisis, the medical union MAM declared an industrial dispute, claiming the government had failed to consult it.
Health Minister Joe Etienne Abela disputed this claim, suggesting that personal agendas might be sparking the industrial action. Meanwhile, in the height of winter, with hospital emergency corridors overflowing with patients, public outrage against the MAM’s actions is growing.
“We must prioritise the national interest and, most importantly, the needs of the thousands of patients relying on emergency services during this challenging time,” said Saint James Hospital CEO Jean Claude Muscat.
Da Vinci Hospital echoed this sentiment, saying the directives stall an initiative designed to alleviate the strain on Mater Dei Hospital during a period of peak seasonal demand.
St Thomas Hospital highlighted the immediate, tangible benefits of partnerships between public and private healthcare providers.
The deterioration in public health services has been more than a decade in the making. Contributing factors include a substantial increase in population, the disastrous Vitals deal, a lack of long-term planning and a mindset focused on maintaining the status quo rather than implementing bold reforms. These issues have culminated in today’s failing public health system.
The deterioration in public health services has been more than a decade in the making
Abela, an experienced medical professional with significant public health experience, is well aware of these challenges. He understands the growing pressures stemming from an ageing population, crumbling mental health facilities, long waiting lists for non-critical interventions, inadequate care facilities for vulnerable older adults, insufficient hospital beds and a shortage of paramedical staff to meet rising demand. The continued dysfunction of the Paola health centre only adds to the strain on Mater Dei.
Abela must know that courage and long-term reform are needed – not temporary, stopgap solutions.
Sadly, this administration is paralysed by strategic inertia. The country witnessed three state hospitals fraudulently sold, leaving Mater Dei to shoulder enormous pressure. While it is very positive that the government is finally partnering with three reputable private hospitals to provide crucial emergency support, this is merely one part of a broader, long-term solution.
Investment in ICT technology is essential to streamline administrative functions within the public health system.
Additionally, relieving pressure on Mater Dei requires more regional health centres offering enhanced medical services as well as farming-out services to our fine private hospitals, which are already equipped and manned.
Though logical, these changes will not be easy to implement. Taxpayers’ money has been wasted on shady, ineffective projects in the past, making the need for accountability even more pressing.
The prime minister can reassure the public of his commitment to addressing growing health inequalities by sitting down with the health minister, the experts, the unions and private hospitals and together come out with a medium plan to reverse the decline.
Reforming the public health system will undoubtedly be challenging but it has become one of the country’s most critical issues.