Health shadow minister Claudio Grech has expressed doubts about the importation of medicines from Third World countries.

The Government must be careful that what was done to possibly solve one problem did not create many more, he said in Parliament.

One of two problems facing the health sector, he said, was how more than half of recent appointments to positions of trust were wreaking havoc with motivation.

The other problem was the suspicion of a calculator policy.

The availability of beds at Mater Dei Hospital did not stem from beds being blocked by homeless patients but rather because such people could not continue to take care of themselves.

There was to be no new investment in community care and old people’s homes.

Indeed, the Karen Grech Rehabilitation Hospital would have 25 per cent of its allocation cut off.

It was to be hoped there was no truth in recent rumours that high-dependency cases would be outsourced or privatised in public-private partnerships.

Mr Grech said the government was still in time to undo all forms of contributions in the IVF programme. Failing that, if couples could not previously afford IVF, neither would they afford it now.

Another worry was the lack of development in the primary health sector, which if effective could yet relieve the current pressure on the medical and health services. Screening for breast and colon cancer was supposedly set to expand, but without any increase in allocation.

The government must make full use of the collective agreement with doctors and ensure all hands came on deck.

It must only build around the positive experience of GPs, one of the pillars of the health service.

On out-of-stock medicines Mr Grech said there was no point in not being honest and playing around with figures.

This was no time to reduce delivered supplies so as to let the out-of-stock situation look better.

Neither sensationalism nor over-simplification would help. The introduction of ICT would not work miracles.

The health sector was at a crossroads and the path was no bed of roses, but at least the two sides of the House could start to work together on the most important strategies.

Recently the government had decided to go for outsourcing to avoid blackmail in the dentistry section, which had decided to walk out en bloc.

When an investigation found that some dentists had simply wanted to go to a party the Opposition had decided not to support them.

Concluding, Mr Grech said consensus was a two-way street and the Opposition was ready to go down it, as long as the government did not close the windows with its tactics.

Also contributing to the debate on behalf of the Opposition were Frederick Azzopardi, Albert Fenech, Michael Gonzi and Paula Mifsud Bonnici.

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