Like all other western countries, Malta is faced by the threat of ever increasing lifestyle diseases that will put pressure on our public heath system. Diabetes, heart disease and cancer are the three major killers we need to protect our families from as more of our people live longer.
But the stories we hear when we visit families in the run-up to the election, is one that should alarm all those responsible for providing an effective health service based on the principle of not having to pay a fee for health essentials. We meet, for instances, thousands of elderly people with failing eyesight, mainly related to uncontrolled diabetes, who have to wait for several months to visit a consultant and even longer to have surgery.
The waiting lists for hip and knee replacement is totally unacceptable because for some odd reason these are not considered life threatening conditions, and because there are not enough human and physical resources to clear this backlog of human suffering. How unfair is it to deny people in the twilight of their lives some simple comfort in the form of being able to see, walk, and generally enjoy an independent life by not guaranteeing prompt medical interventions to counter their infirmities?
But the problem goes deeper than this. The health authorities golden rule of “prevention is better than cure” cannot be followed because appointments for even relatively simple tests, like bone density scans for middle-aged women, are taking far too long to be scheduled. How can people be advised to take preventive measures to protect their health, and then not provide them with an efficient monitoring service they have the right to expect?
No doubt, government apologists will tell us the fact that we now have a state-of-the-art hospital, which has cost us about Lm300 million, shows that the government is putting its money where its mouth is. But people are not stupid. Measuring the effectiveness of public services, including those in the health sector, by the amount of money we spend on providing those services is offensive.
The money that every citizen of this country pays ultimately finances public projects like the building of the hospital. In return we rightly expect that not only should such money be spent judiciously, but also that in the end the service that such projects provide should be of the highest possible standard. Ask the man in the street whether these two criteria of cost effectiveness are being met, and you will know why our public health system is failing patients.
The government has not yet properly estimated the financing costs of the Mater Dei hospital. At the same time the government has explicitly stated that as long as the economy grows in a sustained manner medical services will remain free for all. On the other hand, the Labour Party is committed to maintain fee free this service so essential to all, irrespective of social status and financial clout.
This government is stopping short of being clear on this issue. It hedges its guarantees about the financing of medical services in the future with a number of provisos, which in practice makes its guarantees unreliable.
A future Labour government will commit itself to provide an effective health service free of charge to all those who require it for as long as is necessary, because the interests of patients who have paid their taxes for so many years makes this a moral and legal obligation for any government.
That is why more and more people are seeing Labour as the most viable option to safeguard their rights in the public health sphere.
Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.
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