What half of €400 million can do

If dreams come true and we ever manage to recover some of the €400 million taken from the Maltese population much can be done to address current pressing health issues. Even if we recover half the amount and spend it wisely we can:

Get on with building the new Mater Dei outpatient unit with adequate clinic rooms and parking space to accommodate visitors both to the unit and to the main hospital.

The current outpatients unit can then be used – with the addition of another three floors above – to create an extra

250 proper inpatient beds allowing the canteen, library, lecture rooms and corridors to return to their original intended use adding also an extra 100 beds over and above the beds they currently provide.

Invest moderately in St Luke’s to create a six-theatre day surgery unit allowing the current day surgery theatres at Mater Dei to be used to address the much-needed inpatient surgery waiting list as well as freeing up extra bed space.

The rest of St Luke’s needs investment to create a regional hub with a 24-hour emergency service together with two or three wards for ‘social cases’ that block up Mater Dei waiting for a long-term placement.

A weight management unit equipped with adequate facilities is also sorely needed to address obesity which will be the scourge of our health over the next 50 years and little seems to be being done about it. The physiotherapy facility desperately needs an upgrade and it is virtuous that the physiotherapists manage to provide their sterling service in the environment they have been left with.

Provide Gozo with a proper 100-/120-bed acute hospital with adequate facilities which should include an MRI scanning room.

This latter facility has been much needed in Gozo and is incredibly still not available despite the harping for over 15 years – long before the political change in 2013.

It is nowadays considered a basic investigative tool. Same for EMG testing which is also not available.

Money should still be left to invest in addressing the now heavy backlog of cases of both outpatient appointments and elective surgery so that within 12 months we may finally go back to the pre-COVID days when the waiting times for these was much more acceptable than the dire situation that exists now.

If only dreams came true.

Jason Zammit – Sliema

Lack of service

On December 30, 2022, I sent an e-mail to the so-called servizz.gov to enquire about the additional cost-of-living adjustments.

A nameless employee at servizz.gov opened a “case” on my behalf but there has been no follow-up from their side, despite the three reminders that I sent them.

Behind the shield of ano-nymity, no one at servizz.gov can be held accountable for their lack of service.

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s