Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/594552
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2015 Opinion 20 T ime after time, surveys, opinion polls and focus groups identify health as being one of the top areas of interest for large sections of society. Any administration which does not give priority to health care risks losing support at a very fast rate. Successive administrations have recognised this. Of course recognising the need to give priority to health care and actually doing it are two different things. The last Nationalist government had in fact failed to produce any forward change in this sector, with the obvious result that once you stop going forward, you go backwards. Indeed when 2013 saw a change in government, the health service, whilst blessed with excellent professionals, was wallowing in a series of chronic problems, with the resultant erosion of standards of care. Out of stock medicines, long waiting lists, extreme waiting times at the casualty department, a lack of bed space in our acute hospitals, an underdeveloped community health service and a number of substandard hospitals. These and other problems were the order of the day. Worse than this, the previous government was giving all indications that it had accepted these situations as inevitable. We were told that waiting lists would only disappear "at the end of the world"; that out of stock was acceptable since "even the grocer had out of stock items"; that overcrowding at Mater Dei was the fault of patients and of professionals. The Labour Party at the time disputed this and made claims that patients deserved better. We were ridiculed for this. Two years later, what we were told was inevitable, is in many instances becoming a memory of the past. Out of stock medicines – both at community pharmacy level and at Mater Dei – have faded from our collective memory. For over a year we have kept the out of stock medicines to below five. Every week we publish online (health.gov.mt) our out of stock list. Many weeks it stands at zero. The next step is to extend the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme to the homes of our elderly citizens. This month we signed a Service Level Agreement with the GRTU and the Malta Chamber of Pharmacists which will see the start of a pilot project to do just this. We will start with two localities, one in the south and one in the north, and then extend to the whole country. We have also started to tackle waiting lists in a co-ordinated, systemic and cost-effective way. MRI, EMG, echocardiogram, bone density, sleep study, cataract surgery and angiogram waiting lists have fallen significantly. This summer we entered into a PPP agreement to utilise theatre space in private hospitals. Our surgeons have already performed over 100 operations, at no cost to NHS patients. We are maximising utilisation of theatre space at Mater Dei by working afternoons and evenings and on weekends. Over 800 day case procedures have been done in a minor op theatre at Mosta Health Centre. Next we will be addressing hip and knee replacement surgery to slash the long waiting list we inherited here. Casualty at Mater Dei was a mess. Whilst our staff are dedicated, well trained and provide an incredible service, waiting times in this department were unbelievable. It was not uncommon to spend 20 hours waiting to be seen for an emergency! The average waiting time was 13 hours. We have changed systems, introduced new IT, increased the number of cubicles and employed more doctors and nurses and waiting times now at the Emergency department are below four hours in over 90% of cases. The next step in this sector is to open a dedicated Children's Emergency Department – which we will be doing in the next few weeks. Building Mater Dei with less bed space than St Luke's was a sure recipe for disaster. Indeed within two weeks of opening, there was already a bed space problem at Mater Dei. This administration embarked straight away on extending space at Mater Dei. The concrete problem threatened to set us back seriously. But within 10 months we managed to build a new hospital block which will, next week, receive 68 patients in two new wards. We will not stop here and in fact whilst we are refurbishing below standard areas of Mater Dei, we will open new wards to create up to 300 new beds. Now we will embark on a major project to bring hospitals around the country to 21st century level. Soon we will start works on St Luke's – which will host a rehabilitation hospital and a regional trauma centre, Karen Grech Hospital, which will become a modern geriatric hospital and the new Gozo General Hospital which will be a 450 bed facility, a state of the art simulation centre, a polyclinic as well as the prestigious Barts medical school. This is only the beginning. We have bold and audacious ambitions, but likewise we have audacious plans. We want nothing less than to make Malta an international centre for medical excellence. Chris Fearne is Parliamentary Secretary for Health Opinion Chris Fearne EUROPEAN REFUGEE FUND PROVISION OF SECURITY SERVICES AT THE AGENCY OF ASYLUM SEEKERS UNITS AND OTHER CENTRES ERF 05/2013 The Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS) within the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security is benefiting from the General Programme Solidarity and Management Flows 2007-2013, specifically the European Refugee Fund (ERF). This particular project is benefiting from the financial instrument and also enhancing the level of security at open accommodation centres managed by AWAS. The EU financial allocation attributed to this project amounts to a total of 254, 429.84 EUR. The general objective of the project is the provision of a more secure environment by having security personnel in order to guarantee a safe environment for service-users, staff and accredited visitors. The management of open centre is the main operation of the Agency and other organisations which run centres assisted by the Government. Such centres accommodate refugees, beneficiaries of protection and asylum seekers. Almost every person granted status in Malta has, at one time or another, benefited from their services, which is a crucial part of Malta's strategy to manage the migratory flows experience over the past decade. Popular perception is that "open" centres are open to all and sundry. However, this is a very mistaken understanding. An open centre is a residential set-up "open" only to registered service users, staff, and accredited visitors. To all effects and purposes, the centre is their home or workplace, and no home or workplace is open to anyone who pleases at any time of the day. To all others it is not an open centre. From here derives the need for the presence of security personnel in open centres, which undoubtedly increased the level of safety within the centres. Persons entering the open centres who are not residents or staff, are currently being approached by security guards upon entry hence, the privacy of the centres' residents are being safeguarded. Moreover, being that the open centres accommodate a large number of people coming from different nationalities increases possibilities for conflicts and aggression within the centres. In these instances, the intervention of security guards proved to be much required as it ensures that any arguments do not escalate into more serious incidents, it assists staff in diffusing situations of crisis and consequently and safeguards other residents and staff alike that are present during such circumstances. The assistance provided under the European Refugee Fund has enabled AWAS to outsource the services to two private security companies for this purpose from April, 2014 till June, 2015. The ERF is administered by the Funds and Programmes Division within the Parliamentary Secretariat for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds. The ERF supports EU States' efforts in receiving refugees and displaced persons and in guaranteeing access to consistent, fair and affective asylum procedures. The Fund also supports resettlement programmes and actions related to the integration of persons whose stay is of a lasting and stable nature. Moreover, it provides for emergency measures to address sudden arrivals of large numbers of persons who may be in need of international protection, which place significant and urgent demands on EU countries' reception facilities or asylum systems. General Programme Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows (2007-2013) European Refugee Fund (ERF) This project is part-financed by the Euroepean Union Co-financing rate: 75% EU Funds; 25% Beneficiary Funds Sustainable Management of Migration Flows Healthcare for the 21st century