Health Minister Joseph Cassar yesterday belied opposition claims that the government expenditure on health was €82 million less than that declared by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech for 2012.
The government was investing an annual €212 million in Mater Dei Hospital, which was the source of livelihood for 3,761 employees, through the services on offer
Dr Cassar was winding up the debate on the budget estimates for the Ministry of Health, Community Care and the Aged. Opposition spokesperson on health Marie Louise Coleiro Preca had earlier told Parliament that besides the effects of inflation, the ministry’s website showed the government was spending €37,900 per hour, which worked out to €332 million per year rather than the €415 million quoted in the Budget.
The minister said that the vote for health increased by €37.6 million to €415.9 million. He said that considering the rate of inflation, the budget would work out at €57 million more than that of 2008. Malta did not cut down its health budget like other European counterparts but it was offering more than 4,000 health services under the National Healthcare Package.
The government was investing an annual €212 million in Mater Dei Hospital, which was the source of livelihood for 3,761 employees, through the services on offer.
Dr Cassar said that during the first 10 months of the year, the Emergency Department saw 92,494 patients, an increase of 3,120 on the same period last year. Of these, 22 per cent were admitted.
The number of inpatients between January and October this year was 76,346, of whom 29,945 were day cases, 27,871 were unplanned and 15,274 on appointment. The remaining 3,256 were mothers giving birth or patients referred by other hospitals.
Turning to outpatients, Dr Cassar said these totalled 428,192 of whom 146,937 or 34 per cent were new cases, 229,413 (54 per cent) were follow-ups and 51,842 (12 per cent) were walk-ins. The outpatient department would now continue to receive patients up to 5 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. Till the end of October, Mater Dei Hospital had delivered 9.5 million services and had received 5,000 complaints of which 99 per cent had been solved.
A total of 136,726 tests were carried out in the imaging department - including MRIs, ultrasounds, CT scans, nuclear medicine, mammography, interventional radiography and X-Rays. The pathology department carried out 5.3 million blood tests while the virology section had been recognised by the World Health Organisation as the national influenza centre and the national laboratory of reference accredited for measles and rubella.
The waiting time for an operation was being reduced through better and more frequent use of operation theatres and agreements with private hospitals and clinics where 240 patents had received free state care. The ministry had entered into an agreement with such clinics for procedures on capsular endoscopy, MRIs and CT coronary angiography.
Operations held at Mater Dei up to the end of October were 36,489 when 32,764 were held during the last year of operations at St Luke’s Hospital. Dr Cassar said that 90 per cent of medical graduates had chosen to continue specialised studies in Malta under the UK foundation scheme. Until last year, 40 per cent of graduates used to go abroad for such training. The agreement with the UK foundation, which reversed the “brain drain” to “brain gain”, had been extended up to 2016. This programme was also being attended by 21 foreign doctors.
A revised administrative and data system was being introduced for the procurement of free medicines. The government was buying 1,320 different medicines for free distribution. Only 28 types of these medicines were out of stock and these were not medicines on which patients had to be necessarily dependant on. These were out of stock because of mistakes taken by producers in manufacture and packaging.
The minister announced that colon-rectal cancer screening was to be introduced next year for people between the ages of 60 and 64 years. This cancer affected 180 persons every year with a mortality rate of 95.
The breast screening tests had saved the lives of 96 women; 27,616 mammograms had been made by the end of October. A medical delegation from Cyprus was in Malta earlier this year for training on breast screening.
The Foundation for Medical Services had saved €1.4 million in expenditure on the oncology centre. The building for the linear accelerators in the centre had been completed.
Other projects initiated by the FMS included a new regional health centre in Gżira at a cost of €6.5 million and relocating the dermatology department from the Boffa to the Mater Dei Hospital.
Dr Cassar said it was a shame that care workers and clerks in the health sector were the focus of controversies on conditions of work in sensational media stories published for political advantage. He said that the investigation into the conditions of work of carers in private employment on contract for the government had concluded that no legislation had been infringed. However an inter-ministerial committee had been set up with experts to find ways of strengthening regulations through legal notices.