Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1519224
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 17 APRIL 2024 NEWS Letter of Intention Mariusz Florin Ban, sole Director of BMF SERVICES LTD., hereby declares his intention for the company to register for an Employment Agency licence in accordance with article 23 of the Employment and Training Services Act, 1990 (Act XXVIII of 1990). The activities proposed to be carried out are the following: 1) Recruitment Consultancy 2) Interviewing, selection, and placements of candidates in employment 3) Recruitment of persons from abroad to employment in Malta or in an EU member state 4) Recruitment of persons in Malta for employment in Malta or in an EU member state 5) Advertising of the filling of vacancies 6) Keeping a register of applicants for employment Official The Office Address of the premises at which the employment agency or employment business is to be carried out is; Nicholas, Triq San Filippu, Birzebbuga Company Registration Number: C 101213 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Government had said that PGT will be offered for free on the national health service but Mater Dei Hospital's ART Clin- ic had to be upgraded to cater for the new development. A spokesperson for the Health Ministry said two out of the 23 tenders issued for modern equipment are being appealed. "There were 23 calls for ten- ders published for 92 new pieces of equipment and 55 consuma- bles/material reagents. Most of these tenders are awarded. Two tenders are still pending due to appeals, for critical equipment such as workstations and incu- bators," the ministry said. It did not provide a timeline for when PGT will be available on the national health service. Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela told Nationalist MP Graziella Galea last month in a parliamentary reply that all equipment at the ART Clinic would be modernised in "a few months' time". Meanwhile, since 2022 five couples had their requests for a refund approved. In a second parliamentary re- ply to a question by Galea, the minister said that an applica- tion for PGT costs to be cov- ered by the government that was filed in November 2022 has been refunded. Applications filed in Decem- ber 2022, July and August 2023, and February 2024 are still "ac- tive". The minister revealed that an application filed in July 2023 was refused. The reasons for re- fusal were not given. The refund scheme covers ex- penses linked to genetic tests that are authorised under Mal- tese law. ART clinics in Malta can only test for nine heredi- tary diseases, however, in other countries such as the UK, the list is significantly much longer. The Health Ministry spokes- person said expanding the list of diseases for which PGT is allowed does not fall within the remit of the ministry but is the realm of the Embryo Protection Authority, the IVF regulator. IVF hormone treatment refund scheme extended Meanwhile, on Monday, the Health Minister announced that hormonal treatment asso- ciated with IVF will be reim- bursed even for patients who undergo the process in licensed private clinics. Originally, while IVF treat- ment at Mater Dei Hospital was free, the hormonal treatment was not. Government later started re- imbursing the costs of hormo- nal treatment for patients who carried out the IVF procedure at Mater Dei. Now, the refund scheme for hormonal treatment has been extended to private clinics as well. Jo Etienne Abela said by the end of March 2024, the Em- bryo Protection Authority had approved payments of €1 mil- lion in refunds to prospective parents for medicines they had bought. He added that every prospec- tive parent who underwent IUI, IVF or embryo transfer in a licensed private clinic up to 1 January 2023 will also be en- titled to this refund. He said a total of 285 prospective parents, who underwent these proce- dures will be benefiting from the extension of the refund that will cost €250,000. Abela said a further 634 pro- spective parents already bene- fited from the refund for hor- monal treatment associated with IVF done at Mater Dei since December 2022. In a statement the National- ist Party welcomed news of the extended refund scheme for pa- tients undergoing IVF in private clinics. PN health spokesperson Adri- an Delia noted this was a pro- posal the party had made during discussions on the law amend- ing IVF legislation in 2022 but which the government ignored at the time. PGT list approved by IVF regulator Pre-implantation genetic testing can be carried out for the following monogenetic disorders (PGTM) only but the Embryo Protection Authority can add more conditions to the list if they satisfy certain criteria • Finnish Nephrotic Syndrome • Gangliosidosis • Huntington Disease • Joubert Syndrome • Maple Syrup Urine Syndrome • Nemaline Myopathy • Spinal Muscular Atrophy • Tay-Sachs Disease • Walker-Warburg Syndrome No timeline yet for when PGT will be available on national health service ART clinics in Malta can only test for nine hereditary diseases