When a service is given for free, it is all too often taken very much for granted. Such is the situation with health care in Malta – a country that is, despite the numerous, persistent gremlins in the system, very fortunate to have a socialised health system.
Just look at the situation that has been highlighted time and time again at the accident and emergency department, which at times becomes so overwhelmed by patients with minor complaints that those who are in serious need of attention are deprived of the attention they deserve.
This week Health Minister Joe Cassar told the press that he had put off, for the time being, a novel and worthy concept – that of issuing a ‘bill’ to patients when they are discharged from the hospital so they could see for themselves what their treatments, procedures, interventions or any other service provided by the hospital would have theoretically, and we stress ‘theoretically’, cost them. The bill was to serve an indicative purpose and nothing else.
But this week Dr Cassar said the initiative was being put on hold…indefinitely. The reason? He feared a public relations backlash should the opposition seize the opportunity to, once again, cry foul that the government was laying the groundwork for the introduction of payments for health services.
Of course, he is quite right when he says that he is not prepared to see an exercise that has been two years in the making being misused for political purposes.
Yes, people should know what their hospitalisation would have theoretically cost them – it would attach a sense of value to the health services they have received free of charge their whole lives and it would also give the authorities a tool with which to better assess expenditures.
This latter area is of the utmost importance, with the ageing time bomb close to exploding and with the government hard pressed on all fronts to trim expenditures in the area.
As for a reaction from the opposition to Dr Cassar’s comments, there was no assurance forthcoming, an assurance he had no doubt sought through his comments - only silence. That silence, when gauged against the almost daily tit-for-tat press statements on almost every issue, speaks volumes.
These are the depths that the country’s political discourse has plunged to. That a simple and helpful measure, which is very obviously not intended to lay the groundwork for the introduction of medical charges, does not see the light of day because of possible political spin by the opposition is simply pathetic.
But, let’s face it, in this highly politically charged country, anything could be twisted and convoluted beyond all recognition by the political parties – on both sides of the equation.
Moreover, the desire to charge for health services is very much a political hot potato thrown in the government’s lap at every possible opportunity.
In the last general election, after all, allegations that the government intended to begin charging for health services was one of the major issues tabled by the opposition, on the strength of a Cabinet committee report simply hypothesising on the issue, as such a report should.
The ‘billing’ of patients is a positive initiative, and it should go ahead with or without the assurances being sought from the opposition.
Time for a new
mental health bill
As the Richmond Foundation correctly observed last week, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, it is high time indeed that the country develops new legislation for the area of mental health.
Last week we heard a lot of talk about the issue of mental health such as the number of people on antidepressants and the number of people at risk of developing mental health problems, but hardly a squeak about the need for the new mental health bill that has been on the table for years now.
That is, with the exception of the foundation, which called for a rights-based and community-based mental health act that is relevant to today’s day and age. A new Mental Health Act was proposed in 2006 but it is still to see the light of day.
The foundation has put together a petition calling on the government to draft and implement a national strategy on mental health, enact the new Mental Health Act, design programmes to support those with mental health problems to access the labour market, and give free medication to persons with chronic mental illnesses. The public is encouraged to visit the foundations website and sign on.