Possibility of outsourcing hospital catering 'under study'

The Health Ministry is looking into the possible outsourcing of catering for hospitals and homes for the elderly, Health Minister Louis Deguara said yesterday.

An audit report, tabled in Parliament last week, found there was "a high risk of an outbreak of food-borne diseases" in the kitchen of St Vincent de Paul Residence for the Elderly.

Dr Deguara said that although there will not be a different caterer for every entity, there will be more than one caterer involved.

There are over 1,100 residents at St Vincent de Paul, 86 per cent of whom are either dependent or semi-dependent. Helen D'Amato, Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly and Community Care, insisted that although some of the residents are somewhat independent, this did not mean they were able to live on their own. Mrs D'Amato explained that 51 per cent of the residents are lucid, 33 per cent are moderately confused and 16 per cent are severely confused.

Addressing a press conference to react to the audit report, Dr Deguara stressed the importance of concentrating human resources at the residence on the core services - medical and health care. He said the audit had clearly indicated there was nothing lacking from the medical side which, he added, was the most important point.

"With a good number of residents bedridden, the residence is slowly becoming a hospital," he said.

The importance of quality health care at St Vincent de Paul was reiterated by Mrs D'Amato. She said the residence offered an almost unique medical service as there were five resident geriatricians, doctors available around the clock, professional nursing aides and care workers and services like dentistry, ophthalmology and speech therapy available in-house.

"Ideally the elderly should live in their home, with the help of their families, but sometimes medical conditions make this difficult," Mrs D'Amato said.

Reacting to criticism that the home did not employ a dietician who could plan for individuals suffering from medical conditions, St Vincent de Paul's superintendent, Ronald Fiorentino, said that although this was true, the menus had been prepared by a dietician.

One of the recommendations made by the Auditor General in his report was that the admissions process be made more transparent. Mr Fiorentino said every application was assessed on its own merit. The minister said admissions were previously based solely on the applicant's medical condition but importance was now also being given to the social aspect. He said a new system was being devised so that doctors could go to the applicant's home and evaluate his condition. The application process would be changed so that a person would apply once for different homes.

Mrs D'Amato said a number of people filed an application long before they needed to start living in a home and this because of the mistaken impression that if they were on the waiting list they will be given first preference. This was not the case.

With regard to criticism about the under utilisation of residents' free time, Mr Fiorentino said a big step forward had been made recently, including the full use of the theatre, the installation of television sets in every ward and collaboration with the girl guides, scout groups and the Education Division to have activities at the home.

The audit had also found that about 12 per cent of residents and visitors said they tipped the nurses or care workers. Mr Fiorentino said that although the management said that tipping should not take place neither did it interfere with what the elderly did with their own money.

Contacted by The Times, the Pensioners' Association's vice president, Maurice Petrocochino, said it was worrisome that there were no regulations to prioritise certain admissions. He said people should not be left on a waiting list for years on end, adding that doctors should declare whether a case was urgent or not.

With regard to under-utilised leisure time, Mr Petrocochino said patients who were mobile needed to be separated from the ones who were not.