Despite the perennial complaints against the healthcare service over waiting list, overcrowding and bed shortages, a whopping 94 per cent of Maltese have rated the healthcare service as positive, compared with 71 per cent of citizens of the EU28.

According to a survey released by Eurobarometer, the EU’s statistical arm, only 81 per cent of Maltese had given the healthcare service a collective thumbs up in 2009 when the last survey on ‘Patient Safety and Quality of Healthcare’ was carried out. The fieldwork for this week’s survey had been conducted at the end of last November.

Only six per cent of Maltese rated the service as ‘Bad’, compared with 17 per cent in 2009.

When it came to the question of the perceived likelihood of being harmed by hospital care, 46 per cent of Maltese felt it was likely they could be harmed during inpatient or outpatient care and an equal number believed such an eventuality as being unlikely. Malta’s EU peers were more sceptical, with 53 per cent believing the prospect to be likely.

When it comes to seeking redress in cases of harm caused, Maltese in general prefer going to the authorities to lodge their complaint while other Europeans prefer going to a lawyer to seek advice.

In fact, 55 per cent of Maltese said they take their grievances to the hospital management, compared with 39 per cent on the EU28, and 51 per cent to the health ministry, compared with 33 per cent of their EU peers. Thirty-five per cent of Maltese would take their complaints to a lawyer, compared with 48 per cent in the EU28.

And while 11 per cent of Maltese would take their complaint to patient or consumer organisations, 29 per cent of their EU peers would do so.

Eighty per cent of Maltese said that they or family members had never experienced an adverse event during healthcare, compared with 27 per cent of their EU peers. Nineteen per cent said they had had an adverse experience.

Surprisingly, of those who had had an adverse experience. 63 per cent did not report it while 29 per cent had. Eight per cent did not know if a report had been filed.

Eleven per cent of Maltese respondents said they or a family member had been hospitalised over the last year and two per cent to a long-term care facility.

Of those who had been admitted to either type of facility, 51 per cent said they had not been informed about the risk of healthcare-associated infections, while 40 per cent said they had. The averages in this respect were very similar to EU28 averages.

The Maltese healthcare system fares better than others when it comes to getting written consent from a patient or their next of kin before surgery, with 74 per cent saying this had been the case, 68 per cent in the EU28, and 15 per cent saying responding ‘Never’, the same as the EU average.