Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531100
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JANUARY 2025 Hospital waiting lists and the credibility gap Editorial IT is no coincidence that Prime Minister Robert Ab- ela mentioned hospital waiting lists and "surgeries for the elderly" as priority areas for 2025 during his end-of-year speech. The Prime Minister knows that these concerns about the public healthcare system are widespread and potentially electorally harmful. The very specific mention of 'surgeries for the elderly' is telling because this is a cohort where a year's wait, let alone more, could literally lead to eternity. Abela wanted to convey the message that the government will be dedicating more energy and resources to tackle these problems in the new year. He was reiterating the commitment made during the budget. The financial estimates presented last October by the finance minister show an allocation of €14 million in the budget to significantly reduce wait- ing lists for specific surgeries. It is estimated that an increase of over 5,000 operations will take place through cooperation with the private sector. It is important that the political commitment to reduce waiting lists is backed up by a financial commitment since it shows government is serious about tackling this quality-of-life issue. But people will be forgiven if they reserve judge- ment on this commitment for the time being. Pa- tients waiting for an appointment; patients whose surgery is cancelled at the last minute; patients who have been for ages on the waiting list for a knee or hip replacement; will inevitably compare their personal poorly predicament with the lavish lifestyle of those who benefitted in a corrupt way from the Vitals hospitals deal. These patients will undoubtedly ask whether the millions of euros spent on the deal that delivered no tangible public benefits as promised, could have been better spent to improve existing facilities and expand them to cater for a bigger population. Corruption stories are not something people generally care about as they go on with their daily lives – people have much more important person- al things to worry about. But when a basic need like healthcare fails to be met, corruption starts bothering them and comparisons will start being drawn. This is where the Labour government has a credibility gap. The government has a lot to atone for but unfor- tunately, it is so caught up in its own internal trou- bles that it cannot even understand why news that Justyne Caruana was made a tax consultant for the finance ministry suddenly becomes scandalous. When your elderly mother has been on a wait- ing list for months on end and no one seems to care, Caruana's €78,000 income from the consul- tancy contract – which in ordinary circumstances should not be such a big deal if she is qualified for the job – becomes a weapon to lampoon the gov- ernment with. For how can a normal, sane government justify that after being kicked out of Cabinet because of unethical conduct, Caruana is now rewarded with a consultancy contract at the same time the Prime Minister is trying to lure her back into politics? And while these games are being played with public funds, your brother's surgery has been postponed again and MCAST lecturers are still fighting for a new collective agreement. The quality of public healthcare in Malta is good. It is also free but only if the system is effi- cient enough. It is useless having free healthcare if patients are unwittingly forced to seek medical treatment in private facilities because of lengthy waiting lists. The healthcare system needs to be prioritised. The Health Ministry has issued a tender for the expansion of the emergency department at Mater Dei and the construction of an acute psychiatric facility above it. It is also moving ahead with plans for a new Gozo hospital. These investments could have happened quite some time ago had the corrupt Vitals deal not usurped government's focus and cash. But more has to be done for distraught and an- gry patients to start feeling the difference in their lives. These will not be easy waters to navigate for a government that is still burdened by the sins of its past when it tied improvement in public health- care to a corrupt deal. Nonetheless, the political and financial commit- ment to tackle waiting lists and surgeries has been made and we expect the government to fulfil its pledge. People's quality of life is at stake. Quote of the Week "It is scandalous that in such an important case, neither Prime Minister Robert Abela nor the Minister responsible for Home Affairs and Security Byron Camilleri, have uttered a single word about what is happening." Opposition home affairs spokesperson Darren Carabott reacting to the case of four passengers who escaped from a plane and noting that the government failed to issue a statement despite a lapse in airport security. MaltaToday 10 years ago 4 January 2015 Controlled rents to increase THE tenants of rent-controlled properties who are enjoying low rents thanks to the 1979 law that converted temporary leases into permanent rental contracts, are going to have to face up to the reality of higher rent- al payments. For years, tenants whose leases turned into rental contracts enjoyed their properties at ridiculously low annual rents. But now, judgements from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg have left the government with no choice but to amend the laws – or face having to pay mil- lions in compensation claims and damages in both national and European courts. The government now intends to bring these leases created by the 1979 law, in line with the recent rent legal amendments of 2009 – a sure guarantee that landlords will be paid higher rents on these properties. According to its action plan, the amend- ments will create a mechanism for the revision of the rent, as well as limit the inheritance of tenements, include the in- troduction of a means test, and also create measures to revert the leases to their own- ers. "The amendments will bring the leases created by the 1979 law in line with the gen- eral reform of the rent laws by the amend- ments made to the Civil Code in 2009," a government source told MaltaToday. Under the 1979 Act, which amended the Housing Decontrol Ordinance, a tem- porary emphyteusis gets automatically con- verted into a permanent rental agreement, but this has been found to be illegal by both the Maltese Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. ...