Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1385129
3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JUNE 2021 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Neglect of Gozitan healthcare GOZO'S health sector has been severely neglected these last eight years. The government has outrightly ignored the pleas of its residents con- cerning the selling of its only hospital on the island. Whilst many promises had been made by Vitals and now Steward Health Care, the only visible im- provement has been cosmetic, when Gozo General Hospital's (GGH) reception was given a facelift with the acquisition of new chairs and a reception desk. Furthermore, conditions of the contract wherein a new hospital wing was supposed to have been built and renovations to the existing structure were supposed to have been com- pleted by May and September 2018 respectfully, have been ignored. If Steward is not honouring its end of the deal, then the contract should be nullified. In the meantime, services have continued to dwindle or deteriorate, in spite of the many dedicated staff who do their best to meet the de- mands of their patients. As an example, I will mention the helicopter service that used to ser- vice emergency cases that required urgent transferring to Mater Dei Hospital (MDH). In the past, this would take a matter of 10-15 minutes as the helicopter would land at GGH, pick up the patient and land right at MDH. Now, the patient must be trans- ported to Xewkija from GGH by am- bulance, transferred onto helicopter and the land at Luqa await another ambulance and be driven to MDH. The time has, at the least, quadru- pled! The cost: patients' lives. It was only under the Nationalist government that Gozitans health was given pri- ority. Between 2006-2011, over €5 mil- lion were invested in new equipment for GGH, resulting in new operating theatres, a modernised radiology department and hyperbaric unit. What has this government done? Not much unfortunately. Gozo needs PN back to strengthen and protect our health sector. Among the initiatives the PN is proposing if elected are: A new mod- ern 400 bed hospital. Provision of additional chemotherapy treatments so that patients do not need to travel to Malta get treatment. An MRI in Gozo. Return helicop- ter service as it was once and should be… landing at MDH & GGH hospi- tals. Additionally, the PN will address the issues concerning elderly care – including dementia patients, mental health patients, persons with disa- bilities with innovative, communi- ty-based ideas where the patients are the centre of the care and not just a bed number. Pat Attard Nadur Controlling VOC emissions in Malta I refer to Raphael Vassallo's most re- cent column on the environment minis- try, and I find myself asking: why is this same Labour government not forcing the oil storage operators of the island to eliminate their massive emissions and pollution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)? For the last 20 years, the tech- nique to capture and treat these kinds of huge emissions has been there, rec- ognised by the same oil storage indus- try. The main reason for not installing this solution on their tanks and jetties is purely a financial one. In certain parts of the world large oil companies are now forced either by their shareholders, or by legal force (for example, the Shell case), to reduce their emissions on verry short notice. John Janssen Via email