Boffa, Zammit Clapp services to be moved

The government will be playing musical chairs with four hospitals in a concerted effort to meet the needs of an ageing population and tackle overcrowding in St Luke's Hospital.

Boffa Hospital's oncology department will be transferred to Zammit Clapp in St Julians and the latter's rehabilitation services will start being provided from a new block at St Vincent De Paul Hospital in Luqa.

These are the long-term solutions that Health Minister Louis Deguara presented yesterday to meet the pressing challenges that the health sector is facing.

Last month, St Luke's resources were stretched because of overcrowding, with a record number of 163 extra beds - including 68 acute cases and 93 social cases - lining corridors and wards. Some of these patients would be able to move to the new facilities under the plan.

"Overcrowding in the hospital used to be a matter of seasonality, but this problem has become an uninterrupted concern," Dr Deguara said at a press conference to announce the government's plan of action.

He explained step by step how the moves would happen, though stopped short of committing himself to specific timeframes.

"Each move is intricately linked so it's hard to say exactly when each move will take place. However, I can assure the people that the present service will not be interrupted," he said.

Discussing the future of Boffa Hospital, Dr Deguara said that since the building was scheduled it had become hard to expand.

Initially, there were plans to incorporate the oncology department within the new Mater Dei Hospital. However, if this was done in the first phase, expansion would have been limited so the government has decided to "move Boffa lock, stock and barrel" to Zammit Clapp.

This move, which entails the purchase of new equipment, will cost about Lm3.4 million, and will be heavily funded by the EU.

The plan is to maintain the present number of 60 beds but include all the services of hospice and rehabilitation in one place. A radiotherapy department will also be constructed alongside the present building.

Boffa Hospital chairman Stephen Brincat said the incidence of cancer was increasing and the new services had to be seen in the light of the fact that the existing equipment had an expiry date that was fast approaching.

A CT scan has already been ordered and this was expected to arrive in about three months. This equipment could be easily shifted to Zammit Clapp, once the move was made.

Meanwhile, the two new linear accelerators (which generate intensive radiation to combat the cancer and cost Lm750,000 each) would be installed on site once the new radiotherapy department, in the form of specially built bunkers, was constructed.

"At the moment we cannot take all the patients from St Luke's so this move will facilitate the way we operate, without any interference to the patients' treatment," he said.

"This move enables us to be better equipped and our research projects can be expanded. A problem we are facing is the lack of specialised doctors in this field, so we hope that this new place will attract Maltese doctors working abroad to return.

"As a smaller unit we can also be more efficiently managed. The only disadvantage is that we are a bit far away from Mater Dei," Dr Brincat said.

Once Boffa Hospital is completely vacated the government will then decide what to do with the building. When asked if it would sell it, Dr Deguara said he could not rule out any option at the time being.

On the future of Zammit Clapp, which has an excellent record of over 85 per cent patient satisfaction, Dr Deguara said that the services were hampered by the fact it only had 60 beds.

In the light of this, a rehabilitation block that can provide 280 beds will be built on the premises of St Vincent De Paul Hospital.

"We have calculated that we would need an average of 100 more beds a year to meet the demands of an ageing population. This new block should cover us for two years," he said.

Zammit Clapp management board chairman Frederick Fenech said that the hospital had been saying it could not cope with the increased demand for rehabilitation services for the past six years.

The number of people over 65 years was predicted to increase to 18 per cent from the present 13.3 per cent, and the number of people over 80 was also increasing rapidly, he pointed out.