Anyone who has had the misfortune of having had to spend a few days in hospital over the past year cannot but agree that there is a world of a difference between Mater Dei Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital.

The level of services offered at the old complex in Guardamangia, in terms of the care shown by the doctors, nurses and all the other staff, was already high, but it must be said that the new state of the art hospital at Tal-Qroqq has helped to continue increase this level of service too – simply because the hospital staff is working in a much better environment.

The amenities that are available at Mater Dei have made life much easier for the workers there, and also for the patients. Spending time in a hospital is not something that one can look forward to – whether it is an emergency or a planned stay – and therefore the fact that today the facilities make it all more comfortable at least eases the trauma.

When the minister and parliamentary secretary responsible for health, John Dalli and Joe Cassar, visited the hospital on its first birthday a few days ago, some interesting figures emerged, including the fact that the number of operations that are being carried out at the hospital went up by 114 a month when compared to the results of St Luke’s.

This is, of course, a welcome improvement, but when one considers that not all operating theatres are functioning, it means that there is still so much more that can be done.

Let’s put the record straight – urgent cases are treated with the required urgency, and no stone is left unturned to give patients who need immediate treatment all the attention they can get. It is only in cases where patients can wait that there are delays.

Again, there should be a stronger effort to reduce this delay as much as possible. This also applies to other areas of treatment. Why should it take nearly a year for people to get an appointment for a CT scan and then another six months to get another appointment with the specialist to discuss the outcome?

The number of people calling at the Accident and Emergency Department has slightly dropped in the first year – a decline of 2,700 patients that can be attributed to the campaign that was held over summer for people not to go to Mater Dei with ailments that can be treated in the regional health centres.

The problem in this case is that regional health centres are not up to standard, with Minister Dalli recently admitting that at least one of them, that of Gzira, is inadequate. And unless the services at the regional centres as well as their accessibility are improved, it is probably useless to expect people to go there for medical assistance when they know that, in the majority of cases, they will be referred to Mater Dei Hospital anyway.

One other point that was mentioned was the increasing costs of providing health care – the government spends e256 a day for every patient in a ward, e489 in a high dependency ward and e932 in intensive care. These and other costs are sustained through public taxes, but one must question whether this system can remain sustainable in the future.

Although no government would like to introduce fees for treatment in a public hospital, there will come a time when the costs would rise so much that it would be impossible to maintain the current system. A form of insurance could be one of the ways that would help to cover the expenses incurred.