Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/487054
maltatoday, Sunday, 29 March 2015 15 tients interested in coming to Malta for an operation. To date, however, we haven't had the facilities. So we need to create the facilities to attract paying patients from abroad. This will provide the revenue needed to keep the service free…" But that also means substantial investment… in other words, more expenditure. So we basically have to spend more in order to spend less? "Yes. We estimate that, to upgrade existing hospitals, to improve the service for the Maltese, and to create excess facilities to use for medical tourism, we would need €200 mil- lion. That, incidentally, is where the figure comes from..." The same figure is also being ques- tioned by the Opposition as very specific, for an investment proposal that has yet to be actually launched. It has queried whether the investor has in fact already been chosen, and the deal already sealed… Chris Fearne however insists that the sum represents the expected in- vestment on the basis of the project's worth. "As we speak the proposal is being drawn up. By the end of May the call will have closed, and only then we will know who the bidders are…" The proposal itself is for a private investor to upgrade and extend three local hospitals. "St Luke's, which has been out of use for nine years, badly needs an upgrade anyway. But we want to expand on it, so that a sub- stantial part of it will be for local use, and the rest for medical tourism. Ka- rin Grech Hospital will be upgraded, entirely for use by Maltese patients. We also need a new nursing school in St Luke's, to address the human resources issues I mentioned earlier. And we need to upgrade and extend the Gozo General hospital. Lastly, a new medical school to be run by Barts, and a new centre for anatomi- cal research. This is the vision…" In the upgrading process, Fearne hopes to address a few other lacunae in the existing health service. "At present we do not have a rehab hos- pital. There is a ward in Karin Grech which we call a rehab hospital, but it's mostly taken up by geriatric pa- tients. Around 70 beds at Mater Dei are currently 'blocked', so to speak, by rehab patients because there's nowhere else to send them. So in St Luke's we will be establishing an 80- bed hospital dedicated solely to re- habilitation, offering physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, occupational therapy, and so on." A new dermatology hospital is also envisioned for St Luke's, to replace the ward currently used at Boffa Hospital. And Karin Grech is to be enlarged with a 300-bed geriatric hospital. As for Gozo, the lynchpin of this vision is a new medical school to be run by Barts, and which will take in 300 paying students from all over the world. Why Barts in particular? "An important consideration to attract paying customers is having a name. We already have a good repu- tation, both for our medical profes- sionals and for our facilities. One of the things a patient would look for when choosing a hospital overseas is the name: if going to America, you might be looking at Mayo Clinic… if the problem concerns a child, you might want Great Ormond Street Hospital [in the UK]. That's why we have entered into a partnership with Barts, which is a widely known name around the world. It can attract not only medical tourism, but also fur- ther investment in the sector…" For Fearne this represents a win- win situation. "Barts pays rent to the investor, and charges international fees to 300 students. For us there are three spin-offs. One, we will have an international medical school of worldwide repute, and this will cre- ate post-graduate opportunities for research. Two, there will be 300 paying students from abroad, whose families will come and visit from time to time; this gives an economic boost to Gozo. Three, it gives us visibility in the health world across the globe. If you're looking for treatment, and you hear 'Barts Malta', it's automati- cally a name you can trust." Yet already there have been con- cerns expressed about how this in- vestment might impact the existing medical education infrastructure. Unlike the local university, Barts can also offer international stand- ard private sector wages. Some have predicted a brain drain, as lecturers at the Malta Medical School may be lured by better pay and conditions. Fearne disagrees. "Most of the lecturers at the new school will be brought over by Barts, from Queen Mary University. But yes, there will be opportunities for local lecturers. This is a good thing: we're happy to be increasing opportunities. But we're also negotiating with the Uni- versity of Malta so that ideally, lec- turers will already have a contract with the university. The university is happy with this. Many lecturers are what we refer to as T1 or T2: they are not full-timers. Most consult- ants, for instance, are T1. They only do two or three hours a week. This gives them ample opportunity to lec- ture elsewhere. We have discussed this with the Medical Association of Malta too, and they are on board with it: i.e., that Maltese specialists have enough time, if there is oppor- tunity, to also give lectures at Barts without detracting from the educa- tion provided at the Malta Medical School." So he doesn't share concerns that this may prove the first step towards a phasing out of the medical school? "On the contrary, we have even agreed with Barts that Mater Dei will remain the teaching hospital of Malta Medical School, while the new facilities in St Luke's and Gozo will become the teaching hospital of the Barts campus. We envisage that there will be a cross-over, of ideas, of students. There will be an influx of lecturers, of different ideas. If any- thing, it should give a boost to medi- cal education in Malta. It's an excit- ing time to be a doctor or a medical student…" Interview The health sector needs new revenue if it is to remain sustainable. Parliamentary Secretary for health chrIS FEarnE argues that medical tourism might be just what the doctor ordered the rescue PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAy AttARd