Former CGMO passes away

A former chief government medical officer, Alfred Grech, passed away yesterday, aged 82.

Born at Hamrun in 1926, Dr Grech was surgeon captain with the RAMC. In 1956 he was employed with the ministry of health and served as medical officer, senior occupational health officer, principal medical officer, chief government medical officer and special advisor to the ministry. He was also a lecturer with the Department of Medicine at the Royal University of Malta and director of the UN’s International Institute on Ageing (1988-95).

As medical officer with the Department of Health, Dr Grech represented the Maltese government in several committees, including at the World Health Organisation.

During his tenure of office as chief government medical officer, he took several initiatives, including the provision at St Luke’s Hospital of Intensive Care Facilities and other supportive facilities; the integration of mental outpatients’ and short-stay inpatients’ services within a general hospital complex; the introduction of open-heart surgery, neurosurgery, renal dialysis, and transplantation, as well as the commissioning of a mother and child hospital, and the Gozo General Hospital. He was also responsible for the upgrading of St Vincent de Paule and Ruzar Briffa hospitals.