Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia emphasised the need for equal access, quality and sustainability of the health service and the fact that these needed to be addressed in a national strategic plan.
This plan would go in the direction of maximising public-private partnerships.
The minister was speaking during the first sitting of the Health Parliamentary Committee under the chairmanship of Labour MP Etienne Grech.
Nationalist MP Claudio Grech, on whose suggestion the committee was formed, said the work of the committee would overarch partisan issues and would hit directly at very sensitive areas of Maltese life, as health issues were at the heart of social justice.
Deo Debattista (PL) agreed with Mr Grech that this was not the place for partisanship even if constitutional roles had to be fulfilled. Minister Farrugia submitted to the chair 24 topics for discussion, saying that the government was looking very closely at the aspect of sustainability in all its different facets: from human resources to epidemiology and demographic changes.
He said that with a population living longer and an expenditure on health of which a third was out of pocket, the mathematics spoke for themselves.
The country needed to plan ahead in the context of both national needs and international requirements with a sharp eye on cost effectiveness. He said the public attitude needed to be addressed and educated and directed to a more efficient use of resources.
During discussion it was noted that targets and performance could be planned and an accrual system adopted to reach effective sustainability. This would mean a total change in the systems which fund health and this could not be done without political consensus. Health technology was very important but needed to be more accessible than the e-ID.
Turning to the main item on the agenda, the members discussed sustainable healthcare. Dr Grech said that the Maltese scenario showed a mismatch in the spending on primary and secondary health care.
Dr Farrugia said that the EU average on health educational campaigns was under three per cent of spending, with Malta keeping to this level.
He said that phantom billing could help the patients know the cost of the service they were receiving. Dr Farrugia said that the NHSS report, which would soon be published, would have a special section on the provision of health care by family doctors. He warned against the possibility of doctors introducing the safety-netting procedures against indemnity.
Mr Grech said that the health service was neither cost-free nor was it unpaid for by the public; a third of services were against payment. He said that there were aspects of sustainability of paramount importance. Innovation might appear costly but could achieve payback over time since money would be saved in ancillary sectors.
Recovery of expenses by the government needed to be introduced and could be achieved through political consensus.
Mr Grech said that the GPs needed to be properly integrated into the government health system and encouraged to invest in equipment and infrastructure.
Finally, he said, the sector needed to prioritise health not profit and this had to be acknowledged by all operators including the private sector.
Mr Grech said the Opposition would support phantom billing as this had originally been proposed by the previous administration which had received no support from the then Labour Opposition.