Though a touch bizarre, it is not difficult to see why Joseph Muscat chose to pass the health portfolio to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi. He is young and energetic and has so far piloted the government’s energy programme with relative ease, though there are serious concerns over the planned mooring of the gas storage tanker in Marsaxlokk. To support him in his additional role, Chris Fearne has been assigned as parliamentary secretary.
They are no fools rushing in where angels fear to tread. Both know exactly what the situation is like in the health service and are therefore aware of the huge challenges awaiting them. They are stepping into the job at a time when the health service is deteriorating, rather than improving. Which is why Dr Muscat sought to replace Godfrey Farrugia as health minister.
The general feeling in the country is that, although Dr Farrugia was dedicated, he did not manage to make the necessary inroads as health minister. Complaints over the shortage of beds at the general hospital have multiplied in the year that Labour has been in office, forcing the government to resort to patchwork solutions. This is not good at all – apart from other moves that had put the service in a bad light.
The Prime Minister said a few days ago that the government was “analysing and reviewing a number of agreements and looking at different options. This is being done in the context of a holistic plan the government intends to announce in a press conference in the coming days.”
It is more than a little surprising that the government should be taking so long to come up with a holistic plan when the Labour Party used to criticise the Nationalist administration so fiercely on this matter before the election. Is it also not strange that he announced the new plan only days ahead of the reshuffle?
Taking recent developments into consideration, the number of additional beds planned to be provided through the building of two additional floors at the emergency department, and through other arrangements, is too few when considering that the hospital needs 500 more beds.
A Euro health consumer index, published in Brussels last year, reported that the island’s public healthcare system has deteriorated significantly. Not only did Malta fail to register any progress but the island was losing ground.
The index’s main researcher and coordinator, Arne Bjernberg, put it this way in his report: “Malta performed worse than last year where it comes to patient rights and information, accessibility and waiting times, outcomes and results of service and the provision of pharmaceuticals.”
Malta can no longer hold its head high in so far as the health service is concerned, as it used to in the past. In fact, though the quality of the medical interventions and treatment is good, the service as a whole is deteriorating fast. Leaving patients in corridors is totally unacceptable.
However, against a background of widespread public disappointment over waiting times and bed shortage, there is now a glimmer of hope that matters may change for the better, at least in the way the two political parties tackle healthcare.
If the first meeting of the health parliamentary committee is anything to go by, there would seem to be a good prospect that they will at last start considering the issue over the sustainability of the service with the seriousness it deserves. Up to now, they have scandalously failed to tackle the issue for fear of losing votes. The time for reform is long overdue.