Ombudsman targets primary health care in the community

Lack of human resources and professional, specialised personnel hinder old-age pensioners from being given holistic, personalised and secure primary health care in the community.

When old-age pensioners continue to be cared for in the community, they would be freeing beds in hospitals or assisted-living institutions- Dr Said Pullicino

In a report laid on the Table of the House, the Ombudsman, Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino, recommended that the government should give the issue immediate attention and priority because he believed that a sound service of primary health care in the community was not only of enormous benefit to the patients who needed long-term care, but to the health service itself.

Dr Said Pullicino pointed out that when old-age patients continued to be cared for in the community they would be freeing beds in hospitals or assisted-living institutions. This would also lead to a decrease in the number of social cases.

Furthermore, care for such people in the community cost much less than when they were institutionalised. He said he was sure that the health authorities were doing their utmost to seek alternatives based on available finances.

The measures announced in the Budget bore witness to this.

The Ombudsman drew up the report after he received a complaint from a woman – who he said was taking care of her bedridden husband with “exemplary dedication” – that the care and assistance in the community by the department were not given adequately. The woman had asked for compensation for damage caused to property by the MMDNA nurses. The request was not deemed justified and was rejected.

The second part of the complaint was that the assistance being provided by the government to the husband was not adequate for him to continue to be catered for in his own residence. The woman did not want to send her husband to St Vincent de Paule Residence.

The Ombudsman also noted that this part of the complaint was not justified as the woman had been given assistance under existing schemes.

At the end of his 51-page report, Dr Said Pullicino said he could not but praise the woman for the dedication she was showing in taking care of her husband, at the expense of her own health and financial means, instead of doing as others were by sending their relatives to government institutions.