Record number of operations at Mater Dei in January

A total of 3,947 operations were carried out at Mater Dei Hospital in January, 302 more than in the same month last year, health minister Joe Cassar said.

Dr Cassar said that 43,747 operations were carried out last year, the biggest number of operations to ever be held in a year in Malta. This was an increase of 1,952 over 2010 and 11,000 more on the last year of St Luke's Hospital.

He said that through agreements reached with the private sector, waiting time for several procedures and medical examinations was also being reduced. A total of 310 patients last year had a PET/CT scan at a private hospital as a result of this agreement.

The government also had an agreement for a number of other procedures, including capsule endoscopy, MRI and multi skeletal MRI and CT angiography.

Through another agreement for cataract operations, the waiting time for this operation was reduced from five years to a year and a half.

More than 600 people have had this operation in the private sector free of charge so far, he said.