'Lack of team spirit' in health care

Team effort is lacking within primary health care, a situation that needs to be addressed to ensure staff are motivated and patients better served, a conference on the sector heard.

"Each person who works in primary health care has to understand they are there, first and foremost, for the patients and not just to receive a salary or make more money before they can dash off to their private practice... Unfortunately, I think we do not put enough emphasis on placing the patient at the centre," Primary Health Department director Denis Vella Baldacchino said.

The lack of team spirit could be seen across the board, he said. While there were dedicated staff members, others did not work in sync with their colleagues.

"The time has come to revisit our core values... we need to find the purpose in what we do... A lot of energy is wasted on dealing with problems between staff," Dr Vella Baldacchino said.

While many complained about salaries, he said, figures showed that over the past decade there had been a gradual increase in money paid in salaries to the primary health sector. The sum grew from just under €8 million in 2007 to about €11 million this year.

However, charts showing staff output did not reflect this increase according to registered activities. He cautioned that this did not necessarily mean staff output had declined, as the data had to be analysed more closely.

To begin with, one had to keep in mind that due to the unions' industrial action, patient registration has been disrupted and this may have led to a distortion of figures.

Such union directives, he said, often hindered daily operations and there had to be more effort by unions and management to iron out issues that arose.

Dr Vella Baldacchino stressed the importance of having a primary health care system that was autonomous both financially and on a managerial level.

Addressing the conference, Social Policy Minister John Dalli spoke about the immediate need to reform the primary health care system.

The reform document, in the pipeline for about 20 years, was expected to be issued for consultation in the coming days, he said.

For many years, he added, the authorities had focused on secondary health care and little attention had been directed towards primary health care.

The reform would ensure the sector was placed at the centre of the health care system, targeting both private and public practices to ensure continuity of care.

The reform will also stress on the prevention and educational role of primary health, he said.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Joe Cassar added that the government intended to invest substantially to upgrade the facilities available in the community by having a number of 24-hour regional centres.

"We are aware that most medical primary care contacts take place in the private sector by free choice. We shall respect this choice and culture and shall actually seek to develop the personal primary care system on this basis," he said.

Dr Cassar added that those persons with insufficient means to afford the private family doctor's fees would receive the necessary financial assistance to ensure everyone could access the highest quality of care.