Opposition spokesman Claudio Grech. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The private health sector should not be used as a stop gap during a crisis, according to Opposition spokesman Claudio Grech, who noted that cataract waiting lists have grown since outsourcing was stopped.

The private sector should play a “complementary role to public health services” while growing as an economic sector on its own merit, Mr Grech said yesterday during a meeting with representatives of four private hospitals – Da Vinci, St James, Capua and St Anne’s Clinic.

This was one of a series of meetings on health that the Nationalist party is holding in preparation for a review of its health policy. The ideas will be presented to Parliament’s permanent health committee.

Addressing the media before the meeting, Mr Grech said the government should not use the private health sector as a stop gap– collaboration between the two sectors should be long term.

Private resources should be used to increase sustainability

He noted that an experiment launched by the previous government outsourcing emergency and other services to the private sector had alleviated the burden from the public sector. Excluding the emergency services, 3,200 people were outsourced to the private service between 2011 and 2013.

This “experiment” had seen a drop in the cataracts waiting list, for example, but the list was growing again this year because outsourcing had been stopped. Private resources should be used to increase sustainability, he insisted.

Also present for the meeting, MEP candidate and entrepreneur Ray Bugeja said that medium to long-term partnerships between the two sectors would draw investment within the private sector.

Meanwhile, MEP Roberta Metsola said that the EU will have an integrated health policy for the first time in the next five years. She said that although the EU could not tell governments how to manage their health policy it would be providing support.