Mater Dei Hospital CEO Joseph Caruana said today that the health minister had made it clear to him that the government's policy was to keep the health services free, and he was implementing this policy.
Mr Caruana was reacting to an interview in The Sunday Times where he said that from the business point of view, free health services could not be sustained for much longer.
"When I was approached to take the post of CEO at Mater Dei Hospital, the Hon Minister Joe Cassar made it very clear to me that this Government's policy is to keep Health Services Free. I am implementing this policy.
"My role is that of CEO, I am not the policy maker. I will continue to strive to give the best health services free of charge" Mr Caruana said.
The relevant parts of the interview were:
From a solely business, not political, perspective, is it sustainable to continue providing free health care?
From a business point of view it’s definitely not sustainable because you are just pumping out money in an unlimited manner.
Biomedical engineering is changing and we’re obliged to change the equipment; medical techniques are changing too, so we have to train our consultants; the demand is increasing, and life expectancy is going up.
Let’s look at the situation of cataracts. Thirty years ago with a lower life expectancy several people died before needing such an intervention. Today the bulk of our cataract patients are in their 70s. You can’t tell these people you are not going to operate, so you can’t even blame the waiting list issue... We can’t say you’re too old to receive this solution.
How much longer can we sustain the present situation?
It cannot be sustained for very much longer. There are also pressures at EU level to give proper full patient care, and if we want to move in this direction every cent must count. So there is going to be increased accountability in every cent spent.
Today, our data says 35 per cent of patients who come to A&E did not need to come to hospital and they could have solved their problem by going to a GP or a health centre.
However, the way things stand, if they come here we have to accept them and we will only know they didn’t need to be here when we see them.
It is difficult to say how long we can sustain free health care. It all depends how long government finances can carry it, and as time passes it’s going to become more expensive. The sooner we start to address the situation the better.
You can address the problem internally from an efficiency standpoint, but the snowball effect of improved medical services, equipment, and training is much bigger than the efficiency gains we can make.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110731/interview/Time-to-handle-with-care.378033