During a Cabinet meeting in 2004, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had submitted a memorandum stating that there was a financial crisis in the health sector and the Cabinet discussed a new financing system that included medical fees and taxes, stated Opposition Leader Alfred Sant yesterday.

He told a news conference held in front of the Gzira health clinic that Dr Gonzi had submitted the memorandum in July, 2004 and, as a pretext, said there was a “financial crisis in the health sector.”

The Opposition Leader said the Prime Minister had stated that, unless a new refinancing system was introduced, then the number of health services would have to be reduced.

As a result, he added, the Cabinet began to discuss a new financing system that included taxes and payment.

One of the Nationalist government’s biggest failures was to not reduce operations’ waiting lists, said Dr Sant.

“Even though in February 2000, Health Minister Louis Deguara had promised to reduce the waiting lists, over the past eight years these increased by around 10,000 – around 200 per cent,” he said.

He went on to say that when Mater Dei Hospital was opened last year, the Prime Minister had promised that the waiting lists would become shorter because the new hospital has more operating theatres.

“However, last October, the government confirmed that the half the operating theatres would not be used because of a shortage of around 200 nurses, said the opposition leader.

Dr Sant said that the Nationalists had been promising to address this problem for the past 20 years but they had never solved the problem.

Dr Sant promised that a Labour government would reduce the waiting lists by 15 per cent every year.

It would also reduce the waiting lists in the outpatients department through the introduction of an electronic patient record system that would ensure that a patient would not have to wait more than a month for an appointment.

The Opposition Leader said that a Labour government would focus on primary care and fully invest in and strengthen the health centres which will work in close collaboration with family GPs.

“This will reduce the pressure on the emergency department at the hospital,” explained Dr Sant.

He pointed out that the government’s promised reform for the health centres in 1998 simply meant that health centres were closed for long periods of time and offered fewer services.

“Primary health care has been abandoned in the past years. Between 1999 and 2006, expenditure on upgrading and equipment for the health centres fell by 85 per cent – from e256,231/ Lm110,00 to e37,269/ Lm16,000,” said Dr Sant.

Community services will be strengthened to decrease the pressure on the hospital while St Luke’s Hospital will be modified to house people with severe disability who have no one to care for them, and for social cases, until the necessary structure is built in St Vincent De Paul.

He also said that a screening programme for women at high risk of breast cancer will be implemented while the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme will be examined and improved upon – if needed.

Within 18 months of a Labour government, the Mental Health Act will be updated while the Mental Health Commission will be given more importance, said Dr Sant.