A spacious Church-owned property in Sta Venera was formally handed to the Hospice Movement on Sunday in a ceremony during which President George Vella urged the medical profession to give more importance to palliative care and ease off aggressive medical treatment when it becomes clear that there is no hope of the patient surviving.
It is often difficult to draw a line, but reality has to be faced, he said.
“Let us let our patients leave this world quietly, with dignity and serenity,” he said.
The property – the 30-hectare former Adelaide Cini Institute – is to be converted into St Michael Hospice Centre.
It will be run by the Hospice Movement, which for most of the past 30 years has been providing its services free of charge from a property in Balzan.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna symbolically presented the key to the property to Maria Gatt, who chairs the Hospice.
The major project was first announced four years ago, and the Planning Authority issued permits for structural work in June.
The €8million property is to be turned into a state-of-the-art hospice for people with terminal illness. It is expected to receive its first patients by 2021.
Ms Gatt said that the facility would be a collaborative effort with several stakeholders, including the government.
She explained that services are currently provided, free of charge, to more than 800 families while around 200 patients daily attend the therapy unit.
The new facility will allow Hospice to provide its services “with more dignity and love” to more people.
“One person in three suffers from cancer so this hospital will reach many people. The ambience of St Michael hospice will be of relief. It will be a tranquil place where help can be given with dignity throughout every step of life,” she said.
She warned that operating costs would surpass €3 million-a-year mark but said all services would continue to be provided free-of-charge.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna said it was the duty of the church to help out by utilising property that was entrusted to it in the best way for the common good.
“It is easy to talk about sustaining life from the very beginning to its natural end but words need to be backed up by actions,” he said.
The Hospice Movement, he observed, provides services in the community in the most difficult moments in the lives of many families.
He urged the people to be generous in their assistance to the Hospice Movement.
President Vella, like the archbishop, heaped praise on the Hospice Movement for its service to the country and its most vulnerable, praising, in particular, the voluntary help of many young people.
He praised the church for its noble gesture of handing over its property for this use, and said the ceremony confirmed the appreciation of the church and the state of the work of the Hospice Movement.