Chemotherapy is a right and every Gozitian cancer patient deserves to be treated at the Gozo General Hospital. For the past three years the MUMN has been lobbing the Government for this treatment to be given by us nurses in Gozo.

It is inhuman for Gozitan patients to be expected to have to face the ordeal of taking the ferry to Malta. These patients will be nauseous, in a state of shock and utterly weak to travel. While everyone is talking of two patients (who died of chemo toxicity over 15 years ago) there must have been countless more who preferred to die in Gozo not to face the rough seas and bumpy roads which make chemotherapy at Boffa Hospital a nightmare.

Although the Government is not obliged to interfere in patients’ treatment, consultants should not dictate policies and services to any government. In case of chemo toxicity, Gozo has a better set up than Boffa Hospital. Any government can initiate a 100 per cent safe administration of chemotherapy from next week at the Gozo Hospital. The first three months will serve to train Gozitan nurses. During this time two Maltese nurses who work at Boffa are willing to start going to Gozo for one day a week since chemotherapy is given on a weekly basis.

The MUMN is disappointed that an essential service which was absent in Gozitans was allowed to degenerate into politics.

The MUMN expects the Government to initiate such treatment in Gozo in the coming months for the benefit of our patients and this scaremongering should be condemned by all.