The MAM doctors' union said this morning that it was disappointed that partial or misleading information was being provided in the hospital activity report and in responses which the authorities gave the media.
"There is no data whatsoever in the report on the current relation between the demand and supply for services. The relation between these two will determine whether waiting lists are increasing or decreasing. Futhermore there is no data whatsoever about surgical operations. It is clear from the admission data that demand is in constant rise, driven by migration tourism and an increase in the elderly population," the association said.
"However anybody who tries to make an appointment with any of the major medical specialties will realize that there are very few with a waiting lists less than one year."
As regards to the number of new consultants, the union said that information from the Government Gazette showed that in 2015 only five new consultants were appointed, three being in the department of anaesthesia of whom one was in Gozo, one in sports medicine, and one in gastro enterology, while others were replacements. This meant that there was virtually no expansion in all other medical and surgical specialities.
It urged the health authorities to acknowledge the problem, publish realistic data, and start planning on how to tackle the ever increasing problem.
The MAM and the government yesterday clashed over hospital waiting lists.
The general secretary of the MAM had reported that lengthy hospital waiting lists led many patients to give up on more than 60,000 doctors appointments at Mater Dei last year.
But the government categorically denied Martin Balzan’s claims, saying they were “completely wrong” and not backed up by statistics.
Dr Balzan said many patients were waiting more than a year before being examined by a specialist at the State hospital – a wait many felt was simply too long.
Reduced waiting lists were illusory, he said. “Patients are now waiting to be diagnosed, so the number waiting to be operated on has been reduced,” the veteran respiratory physician claimed, saying that the bottleneck had merely been shifted from surgery to the outpatient departments.
A Health Ministry spokesperson said the numbers gave the lie to Dr Balzan’s “mistaken” claims. While admitting that “more work needs to be done” to reduce outpatient waiting lists, they said that the number of new operations booked following diagnosis had risen substantially over the past years.