(Adds Health Ministry statement)
The Labour Party had a vision for the health sector and in government it would anticipate European directives rather than wait to take action, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking at Le Meridien in St Julian’s, Dr Muscat said the government announced this week it would start using two theatres for cataract operations. What had it been waiting for, he asked, adding that while those on the waiting list for this operation numbered 500 in 1999, the number had now reached 5,735.
A similar disastrous situation could be seen in orthopaedics with the number of people on the waiting list rising from 4,607 to 12,219 last year.
The Health Minister had now said that the number had dropped by 49 per cent because a number of people had done the operation privately. This was how the government was solving the waiting list problem.
The people, Dr Muscat said, wanted serious action and the PL’s vision was different.
For the PL, to put someone on a waiting list was to excacerbate the problem because during the waiting period that person had to receive medicine and care, which cost the state.
“Our vision is to anticipate European directives on patient mobility and not wait for them to create sustainable joint ventures with the private sector to provide cutting edge health care for the people,” Dr Muscat said.
This would not be easy but leaving people on the waiting list was not a solution. Free healthcare had to be sustained but the country also had to look forward.
The country had spent 15 years waiting or a new hospital and there was still a lack of beds. It now had to wait another three years for an oncology hospital, the cost of which had gone up from €24 million to €48 million, excluding VAT. Why was this lack of planning, Dr Muscat asked.
People, he said, did not mind paying taxes for health as long as these were well spent.
He also spoke on the European Commission’s decision to drop the case against Malta on the extension of the development zones. The EU, he said, did this on a technicality because the exercise was the continuation of a process which started before Malta became an EU member.
Dr Muscat said that while the cost of work in the EU had increased by an average of 2.4 per cent, in Malta this dropped by 0.4 per cent.
HEALTH MINISTRY STATEMENT
The Health Ministry said in a reaction that 39,000 operations were carried out at Mater Dei Hospital last year, 6,000 more than in the last year of St Luke's Hospital.
More operations were being carried out at the new hospital, including on Saturdays and Sundays and the government had this year allocated an additional 4 million euros so that more operations would be carried out.
The minister denied ever saying that the number of orthopaedic operations had dropped by 49 per cent because people had their operation done in the private sector.
The ministry said that there were patients who were listed for the same operation under different consultants, increasing the numbers.
It pointed out that health services were increasing, more medicine was being given out and more medical examinations were being carried out. Close to 5 million tests were carried out in the Pathology Department and 22 million euros worth of medicine was given out last year, an increase of 6.4 per cent over the previous year.