Strategic plan to strengthen primary care

The Ministry for Health, the Elderly and Community Care is in the process of drawing up a strategic plan to strengthen community and primary care, Health Minister Louis Deguara said yesterday.

The plan, which is being prepared by a special task force, will be presented to the House Committee for Social Affairs in the coming weeks, he said.

Dr Deguara was speaking during the re-opening of a clinic in Attard after it was modernised by the government in conjunction with the Attard local council.

Now that Mater Dei Hospital has been completed, the government will be focusing on community and primary care, Dr Deguara said. Government clinics will have an important role in this process, he added.

Until now these clinics have provided the facility for the public to see a doctor or to collect medicine. But following the introduction of the Pharmacy Of Your choice Scheme, clinics' roles are to be redefined.

The Attard clinic, which starts functioning today, is open on Monday from 9.30 to 10.30 a.m.; on Tuesday from 11.30 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. and on Friday from 10 to 11.15 a.m.