If anything, the recent debate raging over the appropriateness or otherwise of installing condom machines on the university premises highlights the urgent need for a sexual health policy. It also shows that the authorities and some students alike could use a good dose of maturity and realism.

That there is a debate at all is simply ludicrous. Unlike the situation in years gone by, condoms are these days available in Malta at pharmacies, supermarkets and in the bathrooms of any number of establishments across the islands.

Long gone are the days in which one would have to go to a specific pharmacy, ask in hushed tones for a packet of condoms, and shuffle out with a brown paper bag tucked neatly away out of sight.

While this newspaper would by no stretch of the imagination advocate premarital sex or promiscuity, the development is a good thing. Just as much as young people should be educated, preferably by their parents, on the pitfalls of sexual activity, it should also be ensured that whatever their course of action, they do what they do in the safest way possible.

If that is through abstinence, all well and good, and if through the use of condoms then they should be made available to those who want them. The presence of a condom machine in a university bathroom will certainly not induce anyone to engage in sexual activity who is not ready or already doing so in the first place.

Let’s face reality. Malta and its youth are not what they were 20 years ago. The country is no longer isolated from the rest of the world in so many ways. Through the media, television, Internet and so many other sources, the Malta of today, and especially its youth, is now in synch with much of the rest of the world.

Yes, by all means continue instructing the youth on the merits of abstinence but do not pull the wool over your own eyes and pretend that sexual activity at university age is not happening.

Condom machines on the university premises would not mean the condoning of sexual activity on the university’s grounds. They should certainly be made available if someone who is sexually active has the spare change in his, or her, pocket, and decides to purchase a packet for future purposes so as not to be left without when the occasion arises.

Our sister paper this week carried out an exercise that found condoms are available within easy walking distance from the university grounds, why not bring them closer and within easier reach?

Yes, there are the pressure groups advocating abstinence and those who support such groups should continue to voice their opinions, as is the norm in free societies. They should not, however, be fighting against the prophylactic proliferation. Such a stance is simply irresponsible and a denial of the reality we are living in today.

If we are serious about combating what appears to be a steady rise in teenage pregnancies and worse still, the transmission of sexually transmitted disease, some real steps need to be taken to address the issues. One such step is breaking the still very obviously lingering taboo against condoms. Another such step would be the formation of a sexual health policy the country was denied again in the last budget.

Newly appointed Health Minister Joe Cassar said this week a sexual health policy would be published “soon”. We will hold him to his statement, and with the hope that, this time around, it will also contain a policy on condoms.

In the corridors

The sight of elderly patients lined up in their beds down the corridor of Mater Dei’s paediatric casualty section, as seen by this editorialist last weekend, is a sorry sight that hardly does justice to the gem that is the new hospital.

Whether these individuals are social cases or not is beside the point – such a situation is wholly undignified and wholly non-conducive to the healing process. These people, attempting to catch a little sleep despite all the commotion and bright lights deserve far better, as does the country.

After several years of bickering about costs and timing, the country was finally delivered a new, modern hospital and state-of-the-art equipment. The public was lead to believe that such scenes would have been a thing of the past, relegated to the annals of history, but there are obviously still inherent problems plaguing the system.

Waiting lists, we are told, are being tackled, operations are on the increase, but still situations such as those highlighted by the media this weekend are still prevailing.

And yet, when contacted yesterday, the health ministry had no comment to make about the situation. No diplomatic answer to the effect that the situation is being addressed, no reassurances whatsoever.

Earlier this week, and in view of the current situation, this newspaper also tried contacting the Mater Dei chief executive officer but phone calls, messages left and e-mails sent all remained unanswered, as were similar requests directed toward the health ministry. Other newspapers have been equally unsuccessful in wrenching, at the very least, a statement out of the health ministry about what is a very serious situation.

It is understandable that the new minister is still coming to grips with the enormity of the task before him, and the current situation is something of a baptism by fire, but such a situation cannot be ignored – either on a political or a social level.

But while the situation is one that begs an urgent explanation and addressing, the unwavering professionalism of many of those at the hospital cannot go unacknowledged. We recently carried a story to the effect that a woman with a pacemaker who had developed a suspected reaction to the swine flu vaccine had been made to wait seven hours in the emergency department. The story was carried with the prominence it was given with the intention of not merely criticising but rather of pointing out some of the shortcomings there in the hope that they would be addressed. We hope they have been. It must also be noted that when this editorialist paid a visit to the emergency department last weekend, his family member was seen to not in seven hours but in seven minutes.

Of course, there are different situations on different nights and the hospital’s staff is making the most of the space and resources it has available.

The fact that there is now a dedicated health minister, as opposed to the vital area being contained within a dual portfolio, should mean the sector that so many of us depend on so much will be given the full dedication it rightly deserves. Whatever the case, the new minister certainly has his hands full.