Doctors' dispute erupts again

A Azzopardi

May 23rd 2009, 09:15

@ D. Calleja
I am sorry that you think that the Health Centre Doctor you called for your mother's heart attack was somehow responsible for her death. At least 50% of patients with heart attacks die in the first hour. Thus their place is in hospital as quickly as possible. You should instead be grateful to that doctor for giving you the best advice. He was not thinking like as businessman (as if that term is somehow denigratory!)
If you think foreign doctors are all dedicated, try the British NHS or the American system where you are first asked for your credit card before being seen in Emergency.
One main problem is that in Malta the health system is subsidised by the poor remuneration.
First class service is expensive (in all spheres) but in Malta for Health nobody wants to pay the proper price, so standards will never improve as they should. Do you think as an example, an ECG machine costing more than 2000 euro is paid for by the pittance Maltese patients expect to pay their GP? And has government EVER helped the Primary Care Sector improve? It was Mater Dei, Mater Dei all the time!

C.ZARB

May 23rd 2009, 09:09

@Mr Calleja

Do you seriously think that Foreign doctors would want to work here? The salaries and conditions are so low that we are finding it difficult to attract doctors from Ukraine and Russia poorer regions let alone Europe.

The government has a choice. He can either improve conditions or else watch our health system collapse under its weight. Its ironic that the government cant find the neccessary money to improve health and teaching facilities expecially since he did found the money to improve the MPs salaries with a 290 euros pay rise per week.

d. calleja

May 23rd 2009, 07:31

Few months ago in the early morning I called at the clinic as my mother felt pain in her chest. The duty doctor told me to phone the ambulance. I phoned and she was taken to hospital but just reaching the hospital she had a heart attack and later she died. Today I wished the clinic doctor had called at our house to examine my mother. I totally agree with Mr. Dalli he is with the people whilst some doctors are more thinking as businessmen rather to cure us. Malta should import foreign dedicating doctors.

Dr Wilfred Galea

May 22nd 2009, 21:36

Patient Registration system is nothing of the sort being referred to. A patient registration system is means that a patient officially registers with a particular family doctor and this doctor serves as a bridge between the patient and other parts on the health service such as other specialists and para medical services. A properly functioning primary care service is based on a solid doctor patient relationship based on mutual trust and on continuity of care. i.e. the same doctor knows the patient and his family and deals with all medical problems and refers when appropriate. Family Doctors are now specialists in their own field. The developments in Family Practice on an international level have been enormous and countries who adopt such system consistently have decreased health care costs fron the secondary care (hospitals etc), decreased mortality and morbidity and better health outcomes. A properly functioning health care system based on international models with a strong primary health care service will result in less people attending emergency department unnecessarily, and better control of many chronic conditions. It seems primary health care is at a crossroad...hope the country will be wise enough to choose the correct path

Raymond Buhagiar

May 22nd 2009, 18:09

What the govt needs to do (and urgently) is to install a state of the art Patient Registering System. The present one is really old and does not provide management with enough statistics to know what is really happening. It is not enough to register a patient, but one has also to know the type of conditions that were seen, and at what time the patient was discharged. The statistics given by the health department are definiately not realistic, because health centres may not be registering all the patients. As a result, the MAM does not have enough hard information to argue that they need more doctors. And really, the University should do its part and relax a bit the entry requirements or introduce a fast track system for those who already hold a 1st Degree in say nursing and other health professions. This is already happening in UK - a country which MAM likes to compare the salaries with.

J. Debono

May 22nd 2009, 14:05

@ R. Sciberras
Please do not mix up primary health care with secondary health care.

A doctor who is trained in primary health care, cannot be sent to work in secondary care and vice-versa.

What you're saying is to eliminate primary health care, deploy doctors working there to secondary care, and give the work to a private hospital, i.e. secondary care. This to the detriment of the patient.

joesph farrugia

May 22nd 2009, 13:05

@ Mr Scibberas

do you really know what you're saying. The private hospital is already doing it's maximum to give an excellent emergency service to it's clients. It cannot afford this huge amount of patients within it's environment.

R. Sciberras

May 22nd 2009, 12:37

@ Galea L
Yes I know - Do you?

Galea. L

May 22nd 2009, 11:46

R. Sciberras
Do you know what you are saying Sciberras?

R. Sciberras

May 22nd 2009, 10:16

The Government should close down all health centres deploy the doctors and nuses at Mater Dei hospital and farm out the services to the private hospitals. Like this he would solve, amongst other things, the casualty problem at MDH. Moreover, Govt should introduce a system whereby doctors/consultants in the administrative stream dedicate a few hours a week at the hospitals.