A new outpatients’ department at Mater Dei hospital is “unnecessary and sends mixed messages”, the Medical Association of Malta has said, insisting that funds should be used to recruit consultants.

Reacting to a report by the National Audit Office on outpatient services at Mater Dei published last week, the doctors’ union said any funds allocated for such a new department should instead be spent on supporting staff to improve the outpatient experience and cut waiting times.

The Auditor General’s report highlighted shortcomings in the way Mater Dei’s outpatient system functioned, and the MAM recalled that it had already warned lengthy waiting times would remain an issue.

READ: Eight months for a hospital appointment: Mater Dei under the NAO spotlight

It said the suggestion of resorting to public-private partnerships to solve the problem would result in “squandering of funds to third parties, adding yet another layer of cost to management”.

On the matter of general practitioners and hospital-based specialists referring patients to hospital for investigations, the MAM said this was done in line with the collective agreement signed with the government.

Any funds for a new department should be spent
to support staff, cut waiting times
 

While patients were asked to register, they were not normally given more outpatient appointments that would take up slots unnecessarily, it said.

According to hospital audits, inappropriate referrals to Mater Dei by general practitioners amounted to less than five per cent, the MAM noted. “Many times, it is pharmacy rules that oblige patients needing expensive drugs to set hospital appointments, and this is for bureaucratic reasons,” the medical association said.

The doctors’ union also noted that although newly appointed consultants and hospital specialists were obliged to attend one or two afternoon and evening sessions at the outpatients’ department or at operating theatres, management had been slow to implement the system and to recruit new consultants.

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