Couples eligible for in-vitro fertilisation will soon be able to get the procedure done for free in Malta as the Government yesterday announced the immediate roll-out of the service within Mater Dei Hospital.
The health sector budget for next year was being increased by €38 million to reach a total of €465 million
The Government would be extending the services offered in the obstetrics department to start preparing to administer IVF at once, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in the Budget speech.
“This is a service we have long been wanting to offer but we could not do so earlier due to the lack of a regulatory framework,” he said.
On Monday, the Embryo Protection Bill, commonly referred to as the IVF Bill, was unanimously approved in Parliament.
Women eligible to undergo the procedure will be able to implant two eggs, although three eggs will be allowed in exceptional cases, such as the age of the pros-pective mother.
The Bill says a person is eligible “provided that these procedures may only be resorted to where there is a reasonable chance of success and the procedures do not entail any known undue risk to the health of the woman or the child”.
During discussions in Parliament, the Government dropped the requirement that couples seek an eligibility certificate from the regulatory authority.
It will be up to doctors to ensure couples are eligible for assisted procreation. Mr Fenech announced that the Budget for the health sector for next year was being increased by €38 million to reach a total of €465 million.
The Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme will continue being extended to remaining localities over the next two years.
The scheme, which started with a pilot project in 2007, allows patients to pick up their medicine from a pharmacy of their choice, cutting travel times and crowds. In the past, patients entitled to free medicine could only get it from health centres and hospitals.
To date, about 80,000 people benefited from the scheme and, following an agreement with the Chamber of Pharmacists and the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, the service would be extended for a further five years, he said.
As part of the measures on health, he said work would continue on the construction of the Oncology Centre and the Government would continue building the breast screening programme that led to the early detection of cancer in women.
Chemotherapy services will start being offered at the Gozo Hospital so that patients need not travel to Malta for the life-saving treatment. A unit for dementia patients and a half-way house for patients with mental health problems would also be set up in Gozo, he said.
The Government will work to improve mental health service and, next year, the new Mental Health Act will come into force. This long-awaited law will better regulate the sector and lead to a more patient-oriented service.
Mr Fenech said that, as with previous Budgets, the excise duty on cigarettes will be increasing by six per cent and that on tobacco will go up by eight per cent.
Such increases were aimed at discouraging the use of these unhealthy products, he said.