By the end of this year Malta will, for the first time, have 10 Maltese graduates qualified as radiographers who will be able to administer radiotherapy that is used to treat diseases like cancer.

They will be the first radiographers qualified to work in both a diagnostic imaging department as well as in a radiotherapy department.

This follows an agreement reached between the government, the University of Malta and Cardiff University in 2010.

That year 10 Maltese students started studying to become radiographers through a joint programme between the two universities. These students will be graduating this year and are now in the final, practical, part of their course that is being overseen by lectures from the Cardiff University who are in Malta.

This morning Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia met representatives from both universities. He explained that since the agreement was signed, ever year 12 students benefited from the agreement.

Paul Bezzina, the head of the Department of Radiography within the University of Malta’s Faculty of Health Sciences, explained that radiography had two main branches: imaging and therapy.

Before this agreement was reached there were no Maltese radiographers who could administer therapy – this was left to foreigners. However, this was now changing and the new qualified radiographers would be operating within the new oncology hospital that will be in operation by the end of this year.