Malta will join the newly-launched European Reference Networks later on this year as Mater Dei Hospital becomes one of the affiliated centres, this newspaper is informed.
Health Minister Chris Fearne said that once the European Commission rolled out applications for affiliate centres, Mater Dei would be applying.
“We have been pushing for this for over a year because as a small country it’s not always easy to find experts on rare conditions,” Mr Fearne told the Times of Malta.
The ERNs are virtual networks involving healthcare providers across Europe. The aim of the project is to tackle complex or rare diseases as well as conditions that require highly-specialised treatment and a concentration of knowledge and resources.
There are currently 24 active ERNs, involving over 900 medical teams in more than 300 hospitals from 25 EU countries, plus Norway.
Malta, Greece and Slovakia are the only EU member states which have yet to join.
Dr Fearne explained that the setting up of the networks occurs in two phases – that involving highly-specialised centres, which amount to very few all over Europe.
Due to the island’s size, Mr Fearne went on, Malta did not have such centres due to the low number of patients needing them.
As a small country it’s not always easy to find experts on rare conditions
Despite this, he went on, in the coming months, Mater Dei will become an affiliated centre and while it will not yet be offering consultations to those abroad, patients in Malta will benefit from expert opinion by consultants from other member states.
“Both patients and professionals will be benefitting from specialised consultations, especially for those with rare diseases,” the minister added.
This second phase will be launched by Mr Fearne and European Commissioner for Health Vytenis Andriukaitis next week.
The commissioner confirmed that the Commission had been in dialogue with the Maltese government for the past six months. While Malta had decided not to endorse any centres in the first call last year, he welcomed the decision by the government to first strengthen national networks before joining later on this year.