Government to shed its majority on health care councils

The government will no longer appoint the majority of the members of the councils regulating the health care professions, Health Minister Louis Deguara told parliament yesterday.

He said the councils would be autonomous and the majority of their members would henceforth be elected by the members of the professions themselves. They would also include representatives of the general public.

The minister was opening the debate on the Health Care Professions Bill, which will replace the 1901 Medical and Kindred Professions Act and the 1937 Department of Health Constitution Ordinance. He said those two laws, although amended, were still considered antiquated and did not offer the flexibility needed because of continuous developments in the health sector.

This bill, the minister said, also aligned Maltese legislation with that in EU member states, making it easier for members of the medical professions to work in other member states.

Dr Deguara said this bill followed extensive consultations with the bodies which regulated the medical professions, which were the Medical Council, the Pharmacy Council, the Council for Nurses and Midwives and the Council for the Professions Complementary to Medicine.

All those councils would be retained, but they would become autonomous of the government, with the majority of their membership elected by the professions themselves.

The councils would also include representation of the general public, thus making it easier for patients to submit claims to the councils. This measure would also help obviate the perception that such councils put the members of their professions, and not the patients first, because the people under investigation were judged by their peers.

Another measure to strengthen the people's confidence in the councils was that the councils would henceforth be able to hold investigations on their own initiative, such as when reports and complaints were made in the newspapers. To date the councils only acted after formal reports were submitted to them.

Patients were being given an improved possibility to seek compensation for damages by members of the medical professions, although the bill established certain parameters on time and amount.

In view of increasing specialisation in various medical fields, a register of specialists would be operated by the respective councils, and specialists would continue to be on the registers only for as long as they kept themselves up to date. Certificates of registration would be issued by Specialist Accreditation Committees.

Dr Deguara said the councils, as part of their autonomy, would be self-financing, their revenue coming from registration fees. Initially, however, the government would meet their costs.

The minister explained that in view of EU membership, one would no longer need to be Maltese to be registered to exercise his medical profession in Malta. The same, of course, applied for other EU countries.

Dr Deguara said trade union leaders could not form part of the management of the councils because there could be cases of conflict of interest.