Families won’t have to bear the brunt of having to go abroad to have a gait analysis conducted on their children since it will start to be offered for free in Malta later this year, Parliamentary Secretary of Health Chris Fearne said this morning.

Gait is the way in which we move our whole body from one point to another. Most often, this is done by walking. This new apparatus will help analyse the way a patient walks and whether the patient is in fact walking properly.

Speaking during a news conference held at the University of Malta, Mr Fearne said that the government will be subsidising the upgrade of the University’s Biomedical Engineering Laboratory state-of-the-art motion capture system that allows for the precise measurement of human motion. The government will be forking out €50,000 to upgrade the system. The system will then be used to conduct gait analysis on patients.

University Rector Prof Juanito Camilleri said that the collaboration between the government and the University aims to establish excellence in clinical gait and motion analysis while providing an opportunity for clinical practitioners from the Department of Health to practice and obtain experience working on an advanced state-of-the-art system.
Also present for the signing were the secretariat’s permanent secretary Joseph Rapa and orthopaedic surgeon Charles Grixti.

Mr Fearne noted that ever since the government announced last year that the travelling costs of both parents accompanying their children seeking overseas treatment will be covered by the government, opposed to the past where only one parent had his or her costs covered, 240 families benefitted from the measure.