PET scanner agreement for Mater Dei to be signed tomorrow
An agreement for Mater Dei Hospital to acquire a PET scanner for cancer patients will be signed tomorrow, Friday, the Ministry of Health said today.
It said that until the scanner is commissioned, patients can continue to benefit from the arrangements announced last month whereby patients are referred to scans in a private hospital, with the government footing the bill.
The ministry was reacting to comments by Labour MP Michael Farrugia, who asked what had become of funds allocated for the setting up of Oncology and Dermatology Units at Mater Dei. (See separate story)
The government said the Opposition first criticised the building of Mater Dei, then recognised its qualities and now was going back to its criticism.
It said that the number of operations at Mater Dei had increased by 6,000 per year compared to St Luke's Hospital, while the pathology department conducted 500,000 more tests in a year.
A new oncology centre would be built at Mater Dei. In the meantime, a new linear accelerator for cancer treatment has also been purchased to be used at Boffa Hospital.
The ministry insisted that costs for the building at Mater Dei had only increased because of new demands by the government in line with developments in the medical sector.
This was in contrast with other countries which were scaling back spending because of economic conditions.
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A Wiliams
Jun 11th 2010, 01:40
I currently live in Thailand and lived in Malta for over 20 years while I was there I cause to visit st Lukes and everything was dealt with fine even if the hospital was old . It was what I required to get better and what more does one need.
I since became sick in Thailand and can now say without hesitation every single individual on the Maltese islands must be grateful for the service they have , in Asia even at the best they there is selling you drugs is a higher priority than the care they give you, as it all motivated by money . For an illness that lasted over a year that was a relatively mild problem I spent over 40000 USD and was in Hospital for two nights . Each night was over 1000 USD and to boot the hospitals here did not even diagnose me correctly . But I could open a pharmacy with the drugs I was sold.
Be grateful you dont know what you have until you are forced to use something else.
John Micallef
Jun 11th 2010, 08:57
Dear Mr Williams,
You are quite right in what you said. But their is a simple logic here that we stupid Maltese cannot understand.
We did a state of the art hospital costing big millions (not to mention the over run) without estimating properly how much it's going to cost to run. In less than 2 years someone did a discovery that tough we did theatres more than their is in all lndon, their is no staff to run it. Thus we ended up outsourcing the same services we can easilly deliver from the hospital trough the private sector. This is no logic, it would have been better saving those big millions & outsorce everything straight away.
BTW at the time you are talking about, tough we had our problems which i admit, hospitals were far more efficient!! But now the problems acumulated in st lukes were only transfered toa new building named Mater Dei
John Micallef
Jun 10th 2010, 21:08
Kieku mqar jistmaw in-nies daqs il- PETSs taghom zgur ma hemmx il- waiting list li hemm!! LOL
joe tonna
Jun 10th 2010, 19:54
cant understand all this criticism from Labour party.....
unfortunately last week a relative of mine was urgently admitted to Mater Dei , it was my first experience for visiting & assisting someone there . All i can say is that this hospital is a real gem & a tru state of the art.....from wards,cleanliness...to staff dedication...patients food & even security staff.......
and im not politically biased .......im a die hard labour .
c.cachia
Jun 10th 2010, 21:52
Someone with a brain finally. careful mate they might have you stuffed and put in a vetrina :) You're a rare breed nowadays.
Charles Busuttil
Jun 11th 2010, 08:45
I tend to agree 100% with your comment, BUT Mater Dei Hospital is understaffed and it still takes long hours of waiting in the admittance department to get admitted. The waiting list for operations such as cataracts, hip replacements etc is still long. Patients still have to wait for months to do some tests. Last month (May) I asked for a stress strain and my appointment came for next September! And what's wrong in asking what had become of funds allocated for the setting up of Oncology and Dermatology Units at Mater Dei. Criticism is important. That is why there is an opposition in Parliament. What I would like to know is how much is the government going to pay the private hospitals to have these scans. Remember that expensive equipment is being lent to these hospitals for free and the fees these hospitals charge do not reflect this.
Claire Busuttil
Jun 10th 2010, 19:42
Finally some good news in the health sector!!