No talks with St James Hospital on farming-out of services

Saint James Hospital is interested in making its facilities available to ease the bed shortage Mater Dei Hospital, but no request has been made to it by the government, hospital head Josie Muscat said.

The Sunday Times yesterday reported that farming-out talks are being held between the government and St Philip Hospital.

Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace has long been maintaining that Mater Dei is not big enough for the needs of the population and needs to be extended in the near future.

Mr Pace maintains the state hospital is not meeting patients’ needs especially since it has fewer beds than St Luke’s Hospital had.

“It is easy to blame the bed shortage on social cases but they should have been taken into account when designing the hospital,” he said yesterday, adding that extra beds were sorely needed.

The union would not oppose using St Philip’s Hospital’s resources, although discussions were needed about the working conditions of staff.

Similarly, Medical Association of Malta president Martin Balzan said that while the MAM would not oppose the farming out of certain interventions, it too wanted to know the implications for doctors.

Dr Balzan added that the authorities had to tread carefully not to create problems within the private sector by subsidising the private market.

In fact, St James’ head pointed out that if the government was considering using the facilities at St Philip’s, it was only fair that it also made use of St James. “Nobody is as well equipped as us,” Dr Muscat said.

He yesterday admitted that the hospital was struggling to cope with “sky-high” costs.

“If the government wants to buy the hospital, I would sell it tonight,” Dr Muscat said. However, when pressed, he denied he might be looking for a buyer.

Around a year ago the government held discussions with both private hospitals about long-stay patients and the management of health centres. But Dr Muscat said discussions had stopped and he had not heard anything since.

When contacted yesterday Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar said he himself had never been involved in discussions with either St Philip’s or St James Hospital. Questions sent last week to the Social Policy Ministry, which is in charge of healthcare, remained unanswered.