Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1405706
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 AUGUST 2021 OPINION Alex Muscat Good care close to home AT a time when the health services of many countries are suffering under the weight of the Covid-19 crisis, Malta is expanding its facilities. Long before the pandemic it was obvious that an ageing population was bound to put more pressure on the health service, so a strategy was put in place to up our game. A core part of this was to relieve pressure on Mater Dei by expanding the services offered in localities. The opening of a new facility in Kalka- ra is the latest initiative in this regard. An investment of €40,000 has turned an abandoned shop into a clinic. It is anoth- er collaboration between Primary Health Care and the National Development & Social Fund (NDSF), making good use of the investment coming from people who take up our foreign direct invest- ment initiatives. In an indirect way, our newest citizens are paying for these vital improvements, for the benefit of Mal- tese and other residents, thus solidifying their role in their new country. The Kalkara clinic offers the service of a family doctor and nurse, together with various specialisms - pathology, speech therapy, physiotherapy and podiatry. Its launch comes just a few weeks af- ter a community centre in Marsaxlokk opened its doors. It too has a family doctor and a nursing clinic. Specialisms include podiatry, physiotherapy and spo- ken language pathology. There are blood test and nutritionist services as well as a genitourinary clinic and a mental health clinic. In all, 14 community health centres have been opened around Malta and Gozo with the NDSF investing heavily on these centres. The Victoria health cen- tre, the Gudja facility and the Ċensu Mo- ran Regional Hub in Paola are complete. So too is a podiatry centre in Birkirka- ra. The health centres in Attard, Pietà, Żabbar, Fgura, Sliema, Żurrieq, Żebbuġ and Xewkija have all been renovated and work is continuing a pace in Gżira. Next on stream are facilities in Valletta and Santa Luċija amongst others. All these improvements have been well received. The evidence is that people like the convenience of receiving treatment for less serious conditions close to home. It saves on car and bus journeys, and having to set off in good time, which is especially welcome for people not feeling at their best who appreciate being able to make just a quick visit to the local facility and get straight back home. Actually, it's good for the economy too, with less time being taken off work. These changes are sold evidence of how foreign direct investment is benefiting communities. It is an initiative that goes to the heart of looking after our people. In all, the NDSF has come up with €10 million for these particular improve- ments. It works for the advancement of society in many ways with other recent investments being €8 million for a new palliative care centre, run by Hospice Malta, and €5 million to further Maltese athletes who will participate in the Euro- pean Small Nations Games 2023. Malta is bouncing back from the pan- demic not just economically, with low levels of unemployment, but with a ro- bust and expanding health service too. A society that provides work for its people and looks after their health has to be a society to be proud of. Alex Muscat is Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Communities to own, and maintain, even an expensive luxury yacht… well, you can't exactly compare them to Jeff Bezos, can you now? Moreover, it would be ab- surd to suggest that individual boat-owners – however wealthy they may be (which, incidentally, isn't even always the case: boats have become a lot more afforda- ble these days, you know…) – are somehow 'guilty' of causing any kind of 'environmental ca- tastrophe', or anything remotely comparable… All the same, however… they still have access to a luxury that is denied to others; and in this case, it would have been a yacht marina built for their own ben- efit – and no one else's – that would utterly (and permanently) ruin the Marsaskala foreshore for everybody else. And yet… it won't exactly be the boat-owners themselves to pay the price for this loss of pub- lic space, will it? No indeed: like Jeff Bezos (but at considerably less expense) they can always just hop onto their pleasure cruisers, and 'up and leave'… that is, sail out of the murky, polluted wa- ters of the newly-inaugurated 'Marsaskala marina', and head out to those parts of the Maltese coast that haven't yet been utter- ly ruined by over-development; and which are pretty much inac- cessible to anyone else. By the same token, it will be the Marsaskala residents – the ones who rightly regard that bay as their own 'public prop- erty' – who will end up without the beach and promenade they had been brought up enjoying all their lives… … because it was taken away from them, from one day to the next; and simply given to others, so that it can be used as – and I here I quote Marsaskala resident Marianna Theuma – 'a garage for pleasure boaters'. I don't know. It might not come across as quite as shocking, or far-reaching, as the plot-twist of Ben Elton's 'Stark'… but it sure does look like an injustice to me.