The number of surgical interventions carried out in 2014 rose significantly over 2012, the last year of the Nationalist administration, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne told Parliament last night.

Answering a PQ by Opposition MP Claudio Grech and other MPs, he said the number of operations in October had increased by 14 per cent. When November was taken into account it emerged that in those two months there had been an increase of some 900 operations, or 11 per cent.

There had been 4,704 operations carried out in October 2014 and 4,438 in November.

Mr Fearne thanked all those who had helped achieve the progress, reaching more than 51,000 operations. There had also been an increase at the Gozo General Hospital.

Attention to long-standing waiting lists was thus being accelerated, he said. New equipment had been brought in for operations on varicose veins and the waiting list in this sector would be a thing of the past by the end of the year.

Mr Fearne said the government disagreed with the premise that waiting lists had to be lived with, because all patients had a right to timely care. In spite of the great progress, more still needed to be done.

One of the reasons for the shrinking waiting lists was the use of operating theatres after normal closing times, with sessions taking place in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. The Mosta health centre was now also handling cases not requiring general anaesthetic.

Mr Fearne repeatedly declined requests by Mr Grech and Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg to table detailed lists of monthly operations by identified surgeons.

The Opposition had complained after codes replaced surgeons’ names in a reply to one of their PQs. Mr Grech had asked how many operations were performed by each surgeon at Mater Dei. Health and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi replied using codes instead of names.

Replying Mr Grech’s demand for an explanation, Mr Fearne said it was an issue of data protection. The hospital management and clinical heads knew the codes, but he felt the names of each surgeon and how many operations each performed should not be public.

The public, he explained, could get the wrong impression, particularly in the case of surgeons whose main duty was not regular operations but interventions, hence the small number of operations they performed.

He said the increased numbers of operations included all interventions by all consultants.

Social-case beds

Mr Fearne also said that the Health Department was taking new measures to improve the situation with regard to social cases occupying beds at Mater Dei Hospital. The daily number of such cases varied between 140 and 150.

As a pilot project a group of nurses, midwives and allied healthcare workers were taking under their wing the elderly, frail and those claiming to have no relatives care for them. They were then having a look at how relatives could offer more help. Instead of asking visiting relatives to leave while nurses changed dressings, for example, they were asked to stay and learn how it was done.

The response has been good, but more human resources were needed to boost this outreach service to other sectors besides orthopaedics and facilitate the transition from hospital to home.

Family doctors were being encouraged to visit patients just after their return home, to cooperate with relatives and spot signs of complications in good time. Another aim was to have nurses do the same.

The ministry was also chasing the Ministry of Family Affairs and private partners to find ways of accommodating more social cases in old people’s homes.