It has been only eight months since Joseph Zarb Adami, acting CEO at Mater Dei Hospital and then health parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne (since promoted to minister) informed us that the waiting list for surgeries at Mater Dei had been reduced, mostly thanks to the increased number of specialists in specific areas.

Waiting time at the Accident & Emergency Department, we were informed, had also been drastically cut, with patients being attended to in three hours rather than the four-hour wait that was previously expected.

Positive news indeed. News, however, that jarred with what the man in the street was experiencing on a daily basis.

Fast-forward to today and it sounds like Dr Zarb Adami’s and Mr Fearne’s claims were unfounded at best, downright misleading at worst.

What the Medical Association of Malta said the other day paints a very different picture. Not only have waiting times for surgery and at the emergency department not been reduced but things are actually in a worse state than before, the doctors’ union insists. It even claims that critical parts of the hospital are being overstretched due to lack of consultants.

Worrying words indeed, especially when viewed in the light of the ‘triumphant’, even if it now appears to be conflicting, declaration that had been made to the media less than a year ago by such two senior people as Mr Fearne and Dr Zarb Adami.

Unfortunately, for all of us, but especially those who require medical attention at Mater Dei, what the MAM is saying seems to be more in line with the general experience of service users.

Even worse, the doctors’ union actually offers a very logical reason as to why the waiting time for operations had seemingly been reduced in recent months: the bottleneck in diagnosis. Put simply, patients are not being diagnosed fast enough, which means they do not even make it to the surgery waiting list in the first place.

Is it possible that neither Mr Fearne nor Dr Zarb Adami were aware of this bottleneck when they spoke about reduced waiting times some time ago or did the situation deteriorate rapidly since?

If the answer to both questions is in the affirmative, then the situation is indeed worrying.

If the top management at the State hospital is clueless about the real state of affairs, it is probably already too late to act. On the other hand, if it was a case of choosing to paint a pretty picture that does not correspond to reality then those who depend on Mater Dei for medical treatment have good reason to be worried.

Then, there is another question that needs to be asked. What has led to the dearth of consultants? Is there a managerial decision to halt recruitment? If this is the case, why was such a decision made, especially if critical parts of the hospital are being overstretched due to lack of consultants, as the MAM claims?

Is it possible we got to this situation because there is nothing to lure consultants into a work contract with Mater Dei? Is it a matter of working conditions and remuneration not being lucrative enough or are consultants finding it more worth their while pursuing a career abroad? We are already experiencing a brain drain in other professions; having it also hit the medical sector can only spell bad news for Malta.

The worst we can do in such circumstances is burying our heads in the sand. Action to counteract needs to be taken fast.

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