Health budget increase: ‘An exercise in political deceit’

Opposition spokesman on social policy Michael Farrugia said in Parliament on Saturday that the government’s purported increase of €13 million in investment in health for 2011 was an exercise in political deceit. The actual increase would be of €9 million.

Three big votes pertaining to the elderly – a total of almost €11 million for residential care in private homes, homes for the elderly and the Mellieħa home for the elderly – were being shown under health. This was hiding the fact that the votes total for health and care for the elderly for 2011 was being lowered by more than €1.25 million.

Besides, one must consider that €10 million of the vote would be higher spending on wages and salaries. There would be €11 million less for programmes and initiatives.

Speaking in the debate on the Budget 2011 votes for health and care of the elderly, Dr Farrugia said the situation at Mater Dei Hospital was still precarious with regard to waiting at the Emergency Department because of bed shortages. Before MDH was opened it had been promised that social cases would not be kept there.

The equipment was state-of-the-art, but not the management. Surgical patients were being mixed with medical ones in the wards. It was still taking too long for first-time referrals to be seen, especially with over a year for the Imaging Department.

The government needed to look seriously at projected needs of human resources, as well as training and specialisation, if staff were not to be burned out. The operating theatres were still not all functioning.

For 2010, the sum of €10 million had been voted for a solution to the waiting lists problem, but only €300,000 had been spent to date. Where had the rest of the funds gone? For next year the government was voting €2.3 million, but what mattered was actual, rather than projected, expenditure.

Dr Farrugia severely criticised the lack of such important equipment as stents for angioplasties. Patients had been sent home because there had not been any available, or given ones that were not ideal to their conditions. It was unacceptable to buy just one type of stent out of 55, and even more so to have enough stents only for a fortnight instead of a month.

The situation reflected very badly on how the Contracts Division worked. It had taken four months just to start discussing an objection to a tender.

The opposition would not criticise Dr Cassar if he broke financial regulations for the sake of seriously-ill patients. But it would criticise him if he took no action. He should have gone to the Finance Minister and thrashed the matter out.

Dr Farrugia asked what had happened to the €1 million voted for 2010 for the construction of a rehabilitation centre. The work had not even started, and the vote was nowhere to be seen for 2011.

Last March Minister Cassar had said the construction of a new hospital for people who did not need intensive treatment was part of the solution to the Mater Dei bed shortage, so why had the project been shelved for 2011?

The halving of general votes for institutional health for 2011, from €11 million to €5.7 million, showed that the government’s priorities were wrong.

In health centres the government had made no investment for years. The vote of just €60,000 for 2011 was meagre for all that needed to be done, especially in the Gżira health centre. Where were the funds for the publicised construction of a new health centre in that locality?

The opposition agreed with general practitioners being facilitated with direct testing. If doctors in health centres and the community were given even more opportunities to use hospital services, the pressure on the Outpatients Department would ease.

Dr Farrugia said the Labour administration of 1996-98 had signed an agreement for the introduction of the Pharmacy Of Your Choice system. Labour was still in agreement with the principle, but not with the way pharmacies were continuously being allowed to run out of stock before the government dispensaries. Some medicines were out of stock for months on end, even those stocked only by the government.

Patients driven to buy out of pocket paid prices up to 40 per cent higher than in the rest of Europe. Price studies had shown that 135 medicines were too expensive, but the government had agreed with importers to lower prices on only 62 of them, with the remaining 91 still to tackle.

The opposition hoped that the promised reform in the procurement of medicines would not be done at the behest of importers.

Dr Farrugia said better support was needed for senior citizens, many of whom lived in solitude, fear and even poverty.

The opposition agreed with the introduction of breast screening, and looked forward to its gradual expansion. After many changes of plans the government was now voting just €1.1 million for an oncology ­hospital.

The sooner this was up and running with new equipment the better, because the strain on the equipment at Boffa Hospital was often disabling systems, with consequent new spending to keep going in anticipation of the new hospital.

It was good to strengthen psychiatric care in the community, but not at the expense of staffing at Mater Dei without any change in the population of Mount Carmel Hospital. In the latter, there was an urgent need for the separation of patients with different conditions.

Dr Farrugia said both sides of the House had worked well on the national health care promotion plan. More emphasis was needed in the areas of non-communicable diseases, lifeskills and obesity.

The national cancer plan needed not just €200,000 but at least €1.5 million to work well. The public health sector needed more human resources and an upgrade in health inspectors trained on meat and working more closely with vets, especially in traceability.

Dr Farrugia said consultants did not become decrepit on reaching retirement age. Their expertise must be utilised, at least with reducing waiting lists.

Opposition spokesman on health Anthony Zammit re­newed a call for a joint parliamentary committee to examine the situation at Mater Dei, also suggesting that the budget for health be drawn up jointly by the government and the ­opposition and presented to ­Parliament just as a point of information.

Prof. Zammit said that he was ready to cooperate fully if such a suggestion was welcomed by the government.

Anthony Agius Decelis, opposition spokesman on generational solidarity said Malta had some 20,000 elderly – or a high rate of 22 per cent – who were either in poverty or risking poverty.