Malta has lost further ground in its provision of good quality healthcare services to its patients when compared to 32 other European countries according to the latest edition of an EU-wide health consumer index published in Brussels yesterday.
This year's index, conducted for the fifth consecutive year by the Health Consumer Powerhouse - a Brussels-based health think-tank - with the support of the European Commission, shows that although Malta has managed to better its score on last year's performance, it still lost ground compared to the other surveyed countries as these have managed to improve at a faster pace than Malta. The 2009 survey ranks Malta's healthcare system as in the 26th place together with Poland out of 33 countries. Malta ranks worse that some countries which are not even members of the EU, namely Croatia and Macedonia.
Reacting to the survey's results, the Ministry for Social Policy said that while recognising that Malta "has some distance to cover, some progress has been registered over the last year".
"Malta has shown improvement in a number of indicators, which the HCP has amended from their preliminary draft after consulting with the ministry last July.
"For example, 90 per cent of cancer patients receive therapy in less than 21 days from diagnosis and this ranks Malta at the top along with 11 countries from the 33 ranked within this index. Improvement has also been registered in the preventable years of life lost indicator where Malta also received top ranking," the ministry said.
Four years ago, Malta's health service was considered to be in better shape according to the same survey, which the ministry said should not to be considered as "comprehensive by any standard and therefore does not represent a complete picture of a country's health system".
In 2006 the island was classified in the 13th place. However it has slid back ever since to the 20th position in 2007, 23rd place in 2008 and 26th place this year.
According to Dr Arne Bjornberg, one of the report's authors, "Malta still has some distance to cover to attain world class treatment outcomes."
Although the report states that Malta has managed to score better than last year, 565 points out of a thousand available against 532 points attained in 2008, "Malta has developed less positively than the EU average" and this explains why it slid further back in the overall classification.
The major problems highlighted in Malta's healthcare system in this year's report are the usual perennial problems which, despite various promises by different administrations, have still not improved.
Malta scores badly when it comes to waiting lists, particularly of major non-acute operations, MRSA infections, infant mortality rates, direct access to specialists and lack of patients' rights such direct access to one's own medical records.
Surprisingly, Malta performs worst when it comes to the use of information technology in healthcare despite the hundreds of millions of euros in investment pumped during the past years in the building of a new state-of-the-art public hospital.
According to the study, the transfer of on-line medical data, even between medical professionals, is non-existent and patients still cannot make on-line medical appointments despite living in the internet age.
On the other hand Malta's healthcare system also registers some string points.These include same-day access to a family doctor, the provision of cancer therapy within 21 days of diagnosis, the inclusion of dental case in the public healthcare service and the right for a second medical opinion.
The index ranks European health care systems across 38 indicators, covering six areas that are fundamental to health consumers. These include patients' rights and information, e-Health, waiting times for treatment, treatment outcomes, range and reach of services provided and access to medication.