Promoting medical tourism (1)

I refer to the recent editorial Promoting Medical Tourism (August 4).

Medical tourism seems to be Malta's latest (desperate) dream with respect to Malta's ailing tourist industry.

There can be no doubt about the qualifications, expertise and performance of the medical specialists practising in Malta, which, I believe, are Malta's main asset in the direction of Medical tourism.

The editorial refers to private hospitals in Malta as well as to the new government hospital Mater Dei. The editorial unfortunately fails to tackle sufficiently the employment issue with respect to medical specialists.

The problems of long waiting lists and unsatisfactory outpatient care at St Luke's are, as the editorial also remarks, reliably well known.

When considering the issue of medical tourism, one has to invariably ask about the providers of the specialist medical service.

Will the providers be exclusively in government service? Will they be employees of an autonomous state-of-the-art hospital? Will they be full time employees of a private hospital?

Will the providers be able to care for the medical tourists during the day, or will the medical tourists get specialist medical attention in the evenings?

What happens in case of emergencies when the medical specialist under contract is not available because of duties elsewhere?

On July 26, one could read in an English language Maltese daily that Sahara Medical Tourism would be co-operating with MTA, with St James Hospital and with Hotel Fortina Spa Resort. In the same news item, there is neither mention of other private hospitals in Malta nor mention of Mater Dei Hospital.

An urgent question is therefore whether the specialists under contract at St James Hospital would be available 24 hours a day for the medical tourists. It could not be of any help for MTA and for Sahara Medical Tourism if medical tourists would gather the experience which a private patient portrayed in The Times (June 20).

How will professional insurance at St James Hospital function? How will insurance premiums affect prices? Will medical tourists, or their respective insurance, receive an invoice aligned to Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG's)?

How will the scenario be an incentive for Malta's medical professionals to remain in their own country? Will all be employed by St James Hospital and by Hotel Fortina Spa Resort?

Gary Miller from Sahara Medical Tourism makes it clear that his company does not advocate a holiday after surgery. Nonetheless, the Hotel Fortina Spa Resort seems to be already speculating on an initial sum of Lm40 million, which has been hinted at by Sahara Medical Tourism. It was reported that Fortina has a fully equipped rehabilitation centre but it was not made known whether Fortina has full time medical doctors, who have specialised in rehabilitation, which would make Fortina one of the best rehabilitation centres in the world, as required by Sahara Medical Tourism.

The editorial correctly argues that "it is imperative that the Maltese people will not become second-class patients in their own country as paying cases from overseas are given priority". It is an imminent, and realistic, danger that the actual situation will be so. A socio-political divide will ensue. Moreover, the expenses for Mater Dei Hospital cannot ever be sustained through Medical tourism.

I am informed that the MTA plans to spend Lm300,000 (€698,812) on branding Malta as a Medical Tourist Destination. I sincerely hope that my compatriot friends, Minister Francis Zammit Dimech and his shadow counterpart Evarist Bartolo, would re-consider the practical wisdom of such spending.