Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/614946
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015 10 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 While the government has been promoting Barts's campus as a way of attract- ing paying students to Gozo, their clinical training in the third, fourth and fifth years will actually happen at Mater Dei Hospital – not at the Gozo General Hospital, which is not equipped for students' clinical practice. Barts will be lending prestige to the consortium that has clinched a €200 million privatisation deal for the Gozo, St Luke's and Karen Grech hospitals, which is itself banking on attracting medical tourists to the Maltese islands. But while Barts can charge €35,000 every year to each of its 60 students at any given year, Mater Dei's consultants are expected to make room for this cohort of stu- dents on top of 445 student-doc- tors from the University of Malta. Neither QMUL, nor the parlia- mentary secretariat for health, are saying if Barts will be paying Mater Dei or the University for access to clinical resources when it will be raking up to €10 million each year when it reaches its full comple- ment of 300 students each year. "Without the brand name of Barts, the private investors have stated that they will not be will- ing to commit to an investment in Gozo or St Luke's hospitals," says Alexander Clayman, the elected student-representative on the fac- ulty board. "A high quality medical school, which ours undoubtedly is, must have sufficient access to clinical re- sources in order to give its students adequate exposure to real-life clin- ical medicine and surgery – one cannot learn to become a doctor by merely attending lecturers, tutori- als and reading textbooks," Clay- man says. Students want ring-fencing Mater Dei and Malta's other hospitals offer university students the vast majority of clinical speci- alities, but as Clayman says, "too many medical students in oper- ating theatres, wards and outpa- tients' rooms is bad for clinicians, students and patients alike". With seven Maltese students to each consultant, this ratio is itself testimony to the strained resourc- es at MDH: students even sit out on surgery sessions because only a maximum of three can be in the theatre at any one time. But Barts operate a strict tutor- student ratio: two students for each consultant at outpatients and in theatre, and four students for ward rounds. Barts plans on having 60 stu- dents every year in Malta. In their third year in 2017/2018, those 60 students will be expected to join another 502 Maltese students at Mater Dei Hospital. By 2019/2020, there will be 180 Barts students at any time in the clinical years. "As the number… is being left uncapped, there is no as- surance that the numbers will not increase further, with the obvious serious consequences to our local medical students," Prof. LaFerla told the Prime Minister in his let- ter. "In the UK, Barts students have clinical placements in 11 different hospitals. In Malta, two medical schools will have to compete for clinical placements in one general hospital." "Introducing more medical stu- dents into Mater Dei will almost inevitably be to the detriment of UoM's medical students' quality of education," Clayman says, who is incensed at the fact that the gov- ernment will not give students ac- cess to the Barts' contract. "It is unacceptable for UoM's faculty of medicine to have its re- sources taken away from it when it is doing such a brilliant job at educating our nation's future doc- tors. It is especially disgusting that our medical school is being threat- ened by organisations which wish to make money out of the Mal- tese people's hospital and in doing so, jeopardise their only medical school. I am confident the Maltese will not accept this." The Malta Medical Students As- sociation has also entered the fray, writing to health minister Konrad Mizzi and parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne demanding transpar- ency on the contract with Barts. "As students we were not includ- ed in any discussions with regard to any studies/surveys carried out to assess the feasibility of the intro- duction of Barts," Steve Sammut Alessi said in a letter. Indeed, the parliamentary secre- tariat refused to disclose to Mal- taToday a survey commissioned by Malta Enterprise to assess the clinical resources available for both the University and Barts's medical schools. "There is the need for a formal agreement, in the form of a con- tract between the University of Malta and the government to ring- fence the use of Mater Dei Hos- pital and other health institutions as part of the teaching locations of [Mater Dei]," Sammut Alessi wrote. Contractual agreement for clinical access In its replies to MaltaToday, the parliamentary secretariat for health did not reveal whether Bar- ts will be paying Mater Dei Hospi- tal or the medical school for clini- cal access; nor did it explain how clinical resources will be affected by the introduction of 60 students from the Barts degree every year. "There is agreement that the re- sources available and standard of clinical teaching for Maltese medi- cal students will not be compro- mised," a spokesperson for par- liamentary secretary Chris Fearne News 10 News WORKSHOPS ON ONLINE SUBMISSION OF TENDERS FOR THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY IN GOZO The Ministry for Gozo in conjunction with the Department of Contracts will be organising two workshops in Gozo on the electronic Public Procurement System for economic operators. The workshops will give an opportunity to those attending to familiarise themselves with compiling and submitting their bids online. The workshops will be free of charge and will be held on Friday 8 th January 2016 and Friday 15 th January 2016 between 9:00am and 1:00pm. Interested economic operators are kindly requested to apply by e- mail on procurement.mgoz@gov.mt or by phoning on 2210 0266 between 8:00am and 2:00pm by not later than Monday 28 th December 2015. 'Barts will use Mater Dei consultants to teach its paying students' 'Introducing more medical students into Mater Dei will almost inevitably be to the detriment of UoM's medical students' quality of education' Alex Clayton, student rep on faculty of medicine board Prof. Anthony Warrens (right) signing the agreement with Malta Enteprise chairman Mario Vella. Barts will be lending prestige to the private group that has clinched a €200 million privatisation deal for the Gozo, St Luke's and Karen Grech hospitals, and use its offshore campus for students to study medicine in Malta for €175,000