Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498223
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 APRIL 2023 10 10 COMMERCIAL So firstly, congratulations on reaching this honourable milestone of 30 years of CareMalta Group. Successfully leading a group of this size, what do you think makes CareGroup Malta stand out from other nursing and residential care groups and/ or companies that aid and care for both the elderly and those with a disability (as supported through HILA Homes)? Firstly, I think the experience that CareMalta has - it's been 30 years now, gives us an edge over other homes that have either opened recently or in these past few years. When it comes to the elderly sector, it has evolved and developed quite a lot so there were changes and through the years we managed to learn and re-learn, so that gives us an edge also going forward in the way we think about the elderly sector. The size of CareMalta and giv- en that we operate nine elderly facilities and three HILA Homes, soon with the opening of our 13th home, also through HILA, gives us the edge in terms of economies of scale and staffing. For example, if a crisis occurs, we can bank on other homes, resources etc and that gives us an advantage – being that we're part of a much bigger group - Vassallo Group. We can bank on the construction arm, we can bank on the catering arm and we have the education arm as well so whenever we need something, we just raise our hands and practi- cally, we have everything. At CareMalta, we focus a lot on social activities which I believe not many are currently focusing on and we strongly practice active aging. We're close to our residents and we encourage them to partic- ipate. Additionally, some events that we organise come from the residents - many times they're the ones who propose and come up with initiatives. The fact that we have an activity coordinator or facilitator and resident committee in each home, helps us organise and listen to our residents. We also greatly focus on the involve- ment of families. We deeply value their opinion and I believe that we are a company that is quite close to our residents, their relatives and our staff. CareMalta was incepted on a social aspect. Back then, 30 years ago, CareMalta could have been a private hospital or a school. They chose the least feasible busi- ness model, so it was literally on a social aspect. CareMalta is run according to our values; quality, which is non-negotiable. We fo- cus a lot on safety and we preach and practice integrity, develop- ment, our residents' dignity and overall well-being. Another aspect is that the resident is at the centre of everything we do and I believe that that, is also something that makes CareMalta stand out - what makes us unique. In the 30 years that CareMalta Group has been operating, what challenges and/or obstacles were faced and how were you able to successfully overcome them both as a company and as the CEO? I think throughout these 30 years, the biggest challenge was probably the evolving health- care sector, which brought a lot of challenges. Thirty years ago, we used to call them residen- tial homes and nowadays we call them nursing homes. We don't call them nursing homes because it's a nicer word or phrase, but be- cause the needs are much more focused towards nursing, rather than residential or just being in a hotel, so that was the biggest chal- lenge during these 30 years and it still is because the sector contin- ues to evolve and change. We engage experts in the field to help us reinvent the wheel. We don't stop. We go overseas and observe what other countries are doing, we research and we contin- ue to see how we can develop our services. Currently, our biggest challenge is staff recruitment and rotation - the staff turnover. I be- lieve that the entire country is fac- ing this. We try to encourage our staff to train, plus, we encourage development and as I said before we give a lot of opportunities to our staff. I must say that all of the executive team today came from our facilities. Our COO, Noel Borg was a nurse 25 years ago and the CEO of HILA Janet Silvio was a manager at the Cospicua Home, which proves that we greatly be- lieve in our staff. I must also say that financial sustainability is a challenge in this sector. The size of CareMalta Group makes it more sustainable. Many people believe that the el- derly sector is a money-making sector but the margins are very low. I use to work in an audit firm before, so I've seen profit margins of other businesses and sectors and our sector has a very low mar- gin. The costs are always increas- ing so it makes it even harder. For example, in other sectors, let's take construction. If a person is sick, you can decide to not replace that person - building a house can wait for tomorrow, but we cannot wait because we need to provide care to the resident, so a person or Celebrating CareMalta Group's 30th CareMalta Group CEO James Sciriha As CareMalta Group celebrates its 30th anniversary, CEO James Sciriha explains to Tiana Formosa how the group plans to move forward and continue enhancing the lives of its residents