The private health sector should be used to complement state services while growing as an economic sector on its own merits through government support, the PN’s health spokesman, Claudio Grech, said this morning.

He was speaking during a meeting with representatives of three private hospitals - Da Vinci, St James and St Anne’s Clinic.

Mr Grech said the government should not use the private health sector as a stopgap.

He noted that an experiment launched by the previous government outsourcing emergency and other services to the private sector between 2011 and 2013 had led to 3,200 people using the private service, alleviating the burden from the public sector.

Outsourcing led to a drop in the cataracts waiting list, for example, but this was growing again this year because outsourcing had stopped.

Private resources should be used to increase sustainability, he insisted.

MEP candidate and entrepreneur Ray Bugeja said that medium to long term partnerships between the public and private sectors which would entice the private to invest were needed.

Mr Grech said this was one of a series of health related meetings the party planned to be held in the coming weeks in preparation for a review of its health policy .

He said he would take the ideas that would come out for debate to Parliament’s permanent health committee and a sitting will hopefully be dedicated to the issue during which stakeholders would be invited to give ideas.

MEP Roberta Metsola said that the European Union was to have an integrated health policy for the first time in the next five years. She said that although the EU could not tell governments how to manage their health policy it would provide support.