Since being appointed Parliamentary Secretary, I have been determined that everyone in Malta feels the benefits of EU funds.

So I am delighted that all of Malta’s health workers are to receive enhanced non-technical training as part of a multimillion-euro funding package, which demonstrates this government’s commitment to lifelong learning for over 6,000 vital public sector workers, and delivering better care for patients.

Real transformation in the provision of health services can only happen when the domains of the health authorities, health practitioners and the community at large mutually reinforce each other.

Most of the training will be carried out by professional people in small group sessions that will be repeated so as to accommodate the needs of all the health carers, who will be offered training in managing people professionally, interpersonal relationships, employee-patient relationships, coaching sessions for people in a supervisory or managerial role and team building.

It is evident that demand is high for orthoptist and optometrist resources, and therefore this is creating a long waiting list for the patients’ first visits, which at present is almost six months and is bound to increase. With regards to orthotics, the waiting time is between four and eight weeks, and for prosthetics, new referrals wait a maximum of six weeks for their first prosthesis only if their residual limb heals in time.

Training will focus on building positive attitudes towards carers and enhancing confidence and quality of care for patients

Such training cannot be carried out locally due to the lack of a critical mass for training, as well as the high expense and significant expertise required to run training programmes in these areas. Hence it is envisaged that most of the training will be carried out abroad, while some will be held in Malta.

Once the training is completed, the trainees will return to Malta to render a highly specialised clinical service to the public. Upskilling, reskilling, training and professional development of health and care professionals and workers ,including clinical training placements, will enhance access to affordable, sustainable and high-quality services, including healthcare and social services of a general interest.

The courses required to train these professionals are not all offered at the University of Malta or by any other educational institution in Malta, and hence transitional training is essential.

Although in Malta we have made major efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle, there are limited resources, often the subject of social determinants and health inequalities are limited, and there are various gaps which require research.

Much training will focus on building positive attitudes towards health carers, enhancing confidence and quality of care for patients and at the same time aiming to improve the job satisfaction of the employees. This project is instrumental in the implementation of the Patients Charter.

In total, these projects amount to €7.6 million, and 80 per cent of the financing comes from the European Social Fund.

Malta’s healthcare system is already renowned as being one of the best in the world, especially compared to other health systems where healthcare is not guaranteed for all. It is the belief of this government, however, that everyone should have access to high-quality healthcare, no matter where they come from.

Thanks to EU funding, we are seeing that the service offered by the Maltese health service continues to be of the highest quality. This can be seen both with regards to our primary healthcare, as well as our specialised hospitals and Mater Dei, which are all equipped with the latest technology in order to make sure that our patients receive the best treatment.

Aaron Farrugia is Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue.