Ongoing clashes with trade unions in the health sector affect the work environment of professionals, such as doctors and nurses, and must be urgently addressed, according to Nationalist MP Claudio Grech.
The Opposition was recommending that the issue be given priority and put on the 2014 agenda of items to be discussed by the new parliamentary health committee.
A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives unanimously voted in favour of setting up the committee. The government will shortly be announcing who will be chairing the committee that will be made up of three Labour MPs and two Nationalist MPs – Mr Grech and Michael Gonzi.
Mr Grech said yesterday the Opposition would be proactive and had come up with a list of recommended items to be discussed throughout 2014. The top priority would be the industrial climate within the health sector.
He said the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses had always been vociferous. However, he was worried at the number of issues being raised and the “dose of language used kept getting harsher”.
The idea was to discuss how to bring conflicting parties together to address issues that kept cropping up.
“It would be easier for us to sit back and let government face the music but tackling these issues will allow more time to address other more important matters,” he said.
Other items proposed for discussion include changes in the way medicine products are bought and distributed, implementing recommendations listed in the Johns Hopkins report to improve the workings at Mater Dei Hospital, the migration plan from Boffa Hospital to the new oncology centre at Tal-Qroqq and the strengthening of mental healthcare in the community.
The Nationalist Party was also proposing discussing a more effective method for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, addressing infrastructural requirements for a better primary healthcare system and debating the need to better integrate acute and tertiary care to address bed shortages.
Other subjects listed include making a collective effort to address diabetes and obesity, strengthening the clinical treatment of drug addiction, promoting careers based on merit and experience to move away from promotions given for political reasons and the practical implementation of the EU’s Cross Border Directive that allowed a patient who waited for a long time for an intervention to have the right to treatment in another country.