“No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical care because of lack of means or because of the unavailability of adequate facilities.”

The author of those words was Aneurin Bevan, a Welsh miner who became a politician and minister for healthcare in the first post-Second World War Labour government in Britain. Bevan was largely responsible for bringing the British NHS into being some 60 years ago. For most people it is difficult to imagine life before National Health Service when health care was often unreliable and treatment had to be paid for.

In 1948 it was hard for the people of Britain to visualize what a national health service was going to mean for them and for future generations. It was the first time, anywhere in the world, that completely free health care was made available to all on the basis of citizenship rather than on the payment of fees or insurance premiums.

Speaking in the House of Commons in early 1948, Bevan urged fellow ministers and doctors “to take pride in the fact that we are still able to do the most civilised thing in the world: put the welfare of the sick in front of every consideration.”

Malta was quick to follow Britain’s lead and introduced its own national health service and, notwithstanding its shortcomings, we too can feel proud of the fact that, despite our limitations, we today have a fully-fledged national health service.

I am therefore somewhat concerned by a report in The Times of 26 March in which the Social Policy Minister is reported to have stated that the introduction of new drugs was costing NHS e250,000 a year for five patients. He was making a point of the high cost of introducing new medicines with some medications costing a staggering e4000 for every shot. This should not be a matter of concern as long as the drugs are administered to deserving cases. In such cases, Minister Dalli and all of us should feel proud that we are in fact putting the welfare of the sick in front of every consideration. Furthermore, what is the expenditure of e250,000 compared to the savings of e10,500,000 that the Social Security Department saved last year from benefit fraud investigations? Minister Dalli is to be congratulated for achieving these savings and I commend him to continue in his efforts to curb abuses and to modernise our health services.

According to a recent EU study, the average number of beds per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe is 590. The UK is ranked 25th (389 beds) out of 32 countries. Only Cyprus, Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Turkey and Malta perform worse, with us being the worst performer. Malta has approximately 1,200 beds across all hospitals (public and private). This equates to a bed count of 300 per 100,000 inhabitants. If we aim for 75 per cent of the EU average, then we need to increase our bed stock to about 1,750 beds – an increase of more than 500 beds. A new wing/floor at Mater Dei appears to be inevitable in the not too distant future.

Tony Zammit Cutajar