Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531497
11 EDITORIAL maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 JANUARY 2025 MATER Dei Hospital's emergency depart- ment has long grown small for the caseload it has to handle. Failure to plan ahead for the population in- crease of the past decade is part to blame. Un- fortunately, the government had since 2015 pinned its plan for improved public health care services and more hospital beds on the Vitals concession agreement. This agreement had to deliver hundreds of new beds in a refurbished St Luke's Hospital and a new, state of the art general hospital in Gozo. But when this deal failed to deliver, govern- ment was left with a crisis on its hands be- cause it had foregone public investment into new facilities in and around Mater Dei Hos- pital. Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela is not to blame for this state of affairs for the simple reason he was not around before 2022. But the minister forms part of the same govern- ment that allowed the situation to reach this stage and so cannot be let off with a simple pat on the back. He has to atone for the sins of his predecessors and the only way he can do so in a meaningful way is by ensuring current plans for a new Gozo hospital and the expan- sion of the emergency department, which will also cater for an acute psychiatric wing, come to fruition in the shortest time possible, at the most cost-effective price and without the cor- ruption that characterised the Vitals deal. We do not hark back to the past capricious- ly. We do so because it helps us understand, the predicament the public health system is in today; the frustration it causes to ordinary people who feel short-changed; and the stress it causes medical and other hospital staff, who have to cope in less-than-optimal conditions. We look to the past to help us understand the present but in doing so we also recognise the need to look ahead. Within this context we find it hard to find justification for the resistance being put up by the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) regarding new arrangements at MDH's emer- gency department. To ease the pressure on MDH, the Health Ministry has entered into partnership agree- ments with private hospitals so that non-crit- ical emergency cases can be referred by MDH doctors for treatment there. Transfers to private hospitals require the consent of both senior clinicians and patients themselves. The stop-gap solution until the emergency exten- sion at MDH is built, aims to utilise all the country's resources at a time of emergency. Why MAM should oppose such an arrange- ment and order industrial action on the eve of it coming into force is incomprehensible. The union is insisting no meaningful con- sultation took place prior to the system being introduced. The minister insists otherwise. As always, the truth is probably somewhere in between, caught up in the fog of soured personal relations between MAM President Martin Balzan and the minister. What is worrying though is how this dispute came to a head just two days after the govern- ment announced the new partnership with three private hospitals to outsource emer- gency services. Also, the trade dispute was announced at a time when the public hospital is in a state of acute emergency because of the influenza season. This is not a new phenomenon since winter brings with it influenza and other respiratory diseases that can cause serious complications for elderly and vulnerable people that may re- quire hospitalisation. This has only made an already precarious situation at the emergency department and the hospital worse. Indeed, hospitals all over Europe are struggling to cope. This is why embarking on industrial action now is irresponsible. In the best interest of patients, MAM should withdraw its directive to members not to send patients for further treatment in private hospitals and sit down with the ministry to iron out its differences. Irresponsible industrial action maltatoday MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: KURT SANSONE EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt the US decision was not what they had hoped for. 3. Tackling immigration Immigration has been a weight around the Biden ad- ministration's neck. Despite attempts to push through a number of bills such as the US Citizenship Act 2021 (which, for various reasons, Republi- cans have blocked), the admin- istration has failed miserably in controlling illegal immigration. Biden's polling numbers on im- migration have been in termi- nal decline, revealing a nation that lacked any confidence in his ability to solve the crisis. 4. Staying in the election Biden's refusal to withdraw from the presidential campaign looked desperate. Even when significant donors and Demo- crats refused to support him, he stayed in the race. But his performance in the presiden- tial debate finally brought his ambitions for a second term in office to an end. By not bow- ing out gracefully, his legacy has been tarnished – and those images of him struggling in the debate will last long in the memory. Biden's polling numbers on immigration have been in terminal decline, revealing a nation that lacked any confidence in his ability to solve the crisis.