Updated 10.53am - Added Air Malta, libel suit comments

Talks with the Planning Authority to build a new outpatient block at Mater Dei Hospital are already underway, Health Minister and Labour Party candidate Chris Fearne said this morning.

The planned outpatient block would include a five-level underground car park with 700 parking spaces as well as a subterranean bus terminus, Mr Fearne said.

A new outpatient block will be built, Dr Fearne said.

Mr Fearne, flanked by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, unveiled the PL's health sector proposals ahead of the June 3 general election. 

The new outpatient block would join a new mother and child hospital specialised in paediatric care, with Mount Carmel hospital also being refurbished and 300 new beds in the mental health sector. 

Three new healthcare centres in Kirkop, Paola and one in the north of the island would also join existing centres, he said. 

Tax credit for private health insurance

Anyone forking out for private health insurance would receive a tax credit or rebate, Mr Fearne said. This would help ease pressure off public hospitals, he said. 

Free medicines

Mr Fearne said the government had recently placed an order for 65 million diabetes sticks to distribute free-of-charge, and other pharmaceuticals for osteoporosis and conditions related to heart, circulation and prostate conditions as well as meningitis.

Patient monitoring

Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart-related diseases would be equipped with remote monitoring equipment, allowing doctors to keep track of their health remotely and around-the-clock. 

"This is not science fiction," Mr Fearne said, "we already have 200 patients being monitored in this way as part of a pilot project, and this has reduced their hospital admission rate by 41 per cent."

'From crisis management to future-proof'

Mr Fearne and Dr Muscat both highlighted the government's success in the health sector this legislature, saying the PL had inherited a dysfunctional system with delays, waiting lists and patients in corridors.

Mr Fearne said waiting lists had been cut by 90 per cent and that while 8,000 patients had spent a night in a hospital corridor during the previous legislature, "now we have none".

The Prime Minister was similarly ebullient. 

"Out of stock medicines are part of history, not through extra spending but through improved management systems. We inherited a system stuck in the past, now we are making it future-proof.

A consortium made up of eight countries which had recently been agreed to would help Malta buy medicines at cheaper prices through economies of scale, he said. 

Air Malta

Talks on the future of Air Malta are underway with "a number of consortia" and the government was expecting good news in the coming days, Dr Muscat said.

"I don't envisage an announcement being made during election campaign, but if an agreement is reached I will announce it nonetheless."

Air Malta employees, he assured, would not be losing their jobs.

"Just as we found a solution for Enemalta, we will find a positive one for Air Malta," he said.

Dr Muscat was also dismissive of the concerns being raised over voting documents, saying it was time this sort of discord was long gone.

"Let's get serious, let's talk politics," he said.

Libel suit

Dr Muscat said he would be filing libel proceedings against Matthew Caruana Galizia on the back of a Facebook post in which the latter yesterday claimed the Prime Minister had himself received kickbacks.