Patients are becoming less interested in hospital waiting times than they were five years ago and more concerned with doctors respecting their dignity, according to the EU’s statistics arm.

Eurobarometer figures released this week reveal Maltese are increasingly less concerned with how long they have to wait for a medical procedure.

Instead, patients are prioritising medical staff who respect their dignity.

One third said this was the most important thing to them when in hospital; the highest across all 28 member states.

Meanwhile, some 29 per cent said they were mostly concerned with how long it took to get seen by a doctor, 10 per cent less than when the study was last conducted back in 2009.

94%

- the percentage of Maltese who describe the overall health service as good

Back then, Mater Dei Hospital had been open for two years and public frustration over protracted waiting lists had already started to grow.

By last year the number of people awaiting surgery had surpassed 14,000. Some 2,700 had been on the list for more than 36 months while another 1,500 people had been waiting for between two and three years.

Reacting to the worsening situation, last November former health minister Godfrey Farrugia had initiated a plan to tackle the delays.

This, he had said, would focus on ophthalmic, orthopaedic, cardiovascular and radiology patients among others.

Patients, however, raised other concerns, including the level of hygiene in healthcare centres.

More than 39 per cent of respondents said hospital cleanliness topped their list of worries, the second highest in the EU.

Healthcare professionals’ level of training was also a top priority with 65 per cent saying this was their biggest concern, the third highest in the EU.

This did not mean Maltese were dissatisfied with the quality of the national health service.

In fact, Maltese were the third most pleased, with 94 per cent describing the overall service as good.

Forty-five per cent of Maltese, the second highest in the EU, felt the island’s national hospital was equal to that of other European hospitals, and a quarter of respondents believed it was better.

A lot of this was down to the government as Maltese (44 per cent) were the most likely to say the State was responsible for improving healthcare.

Among the least things to interest local patients was whether their treatment actually made them better. Just a quarter of respondents listed effectiveness among their top priorities, the fewest in Europe.