Agreement between Health Ministry and St James' Hospital on PET Scan

Cancer patients whose consultant recommends a Positron Emission Tomography will be able to start getting this from St James' Hospital free of charge after an agreement was signed today between the Health Ministry and St James' Hospital.

Health Minister Joe Cassar said that the PET Scan permits the specialist to see changes in the body's formation as a result of several conditions, including breast, lung and colorectal cancer, lymphoma melanoma and skin cancer.

As the PET Scan was not the same as an MRI or CT Scan, it was up to the consultant curing the patient to decide which patients needed it.

Dr Cassar pointed out that for the treatment, a very particular chemical which was very expensive and which could not be stored long term had to be imported from Italy. So when a patient was given an appointment for a PET Scan, it was important that the appointment was honoured so that the chemical would not be wasted.

The minister said that the government intended to get its own PET Scanner at Mater Dei and the process for its installation had already been embarked upon but in the meantime, the Maltese would be able to utilise the service at St James.

St James' Hospital chairman Josie Muscat welcomed the agreement and said it could pave the way for full cooperation between the government and the private sector in the health area.

There were many other areas where the two could work together to overcome patients both were facing.

He said, however, that it did not make sense that in a small country with limited resources, resources which required a capital expenditure were doubled even to the detriment of limited human resources, who were very difficult to import.