Both sides of the House crossed swords this evening over the chemotherapy service in Gozo and the hospital project as a whole.
The issue came to light following a Sunday Times report quoting a health ministry official that the chemotherapy service in Gozo, which was meant to kick-start next month, was going to be stopped, sparking a reaction from the Nationalist Party deploring the government’s decision.
On the same day the PN released the statement, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia announced that chemotherapy would be offered to Gozitan patients by the end of the year.
Dr Farrugia blamed the delays on the budget problems inherited from the previous administration, saying that former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi had announced an oncology project in Gozo with a budget of €600,000 and on taking up his post at the health ministry, Dr Farrugia said that the actual budget turned out to be a mere €80,000.
Dr Farrugia said that through various cost-saving measures, the budget has been stretched to €200,000 for the project.
He said that patients travelling down from Gozo for chemotherapy will be offered a “personalised service enabling them to transit from Gozo to Malta until the project is finalised.
Last year, the head of Mater Dei Hospital’s oncology department, Stephen Brincat, resigned saying the government repeatedly ignored his advice on various important issues, making his position untenable.
A Health Ministry spokesman had said Prof. Brincat resisted plans to merge the oncology and haematology departments, which deal with cancer and blood disease respectively, and also objected to extending chemotherapy services to Gozo.
Prof Brincat had said that he was ordered to provide chemotherapy services in Gozo.
“The oncology department has never been in favour of this as it would have meant offering a poor service in Gozo due to a lack of trained and experienced staff,” he ad been quoted as saying.
PN MP Giovanna Debono this evening said that the previous government had issued tenders to equip the Chemotherapy Unit within Gozo’s General Hospital while a number of nurses were specially trained at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital with the aim of providing chemo to cancer-stricken patients in Gozo.
Welcoming the government’s decision to go ahead with the chemotherapy service in Gozo, she pointed out that one had to consider that the Gozo Hospital building was anything but new and a PN government managed to conduct a long overdue restoration.
She highlighted that the present government will have the opportunity to inaugurate a newly revamped Gozo General Hospital, lauding the PN government’s sterling work to restore the hospital.
PN MP and former health minister Joe Cassar told Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia that every single time an issue of funds arose tied to the health sector Dr Farrugia decided to terminate the service, just like he had terminated the free service for the public at Capua Hospital.
“Is this the way you would be tackling issues every time an issue of funds arose within the health sector, denying patients health services?” he asked.
PN MP Chris Said asked Health Minster Godfrey Farrugia when the chemotherapy service would start in Gozo.
The Health Minister replied by saying that the government inherited a hospital where no plans to merge the service in Gozo to the one in Malta existed, adding that the hospital didn’t even have a procurement system, lacked an inventory, among other issues.
He said that one couldn’t focus on a quality service in Gozo when the government found so many problems to deal with for starters.
He claimed that elderly Gozitan citizens visiting the hospital were suffering due to the lack of cooling systems.
Turning to the hospital’s decompression chamber, he said that a Labour government “resuscitated” the chamber.
The aim of the project related to the decompression chamber in Gozo was to offer a safe destination to divers who choose Gozo to practise their favourite sport.
“How can the Gozo General Hospital ever be referred to as a state-of-the-art hospital when water is dripping from the soffits,” he asked.
He accused the previous administration of failing to address the needs of Gozitans, pointing out that works related to the restoration of the Mosta Health Centre had fast been conducted while Gozo health-related projects weren’t treated as a priority.
Dr Farrugia said that he intends working hard, along with his team, to see that works being conducted on the Gozo hospital are finalised soon.
He said that the new government inherited other problems such as the lack of accessibility to the health centre in Rabat, Gozo.
Dr Farrugia slammed the Opposition, accusing it of attempting to make him look as though he was still seeing patients privately while serving as a minister.
“I wish I’m still seeing patients,” he said.
Three weeks after the 9 March general election, Dr Farrugia, a family doctor by profession, had issued a statement denying a story posted on this portal in which it was claimed that he was still carrying on with his private practice as family doctor in a clinic at Zebbug. The ministerial code of ethics states that Cabinet members cannot continue to exercise their private profession.
It was Dr Farrugia’s second denial in a matter of days, after reports on other media said that he was still doing house visits for his patients’ medical needs.
Soon after, when the Prime Minister issued a special waiver to Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Franco Mercieca, an eye surgeon by profession, to continue to operate privately, Dr Farrugia burst into tears when he was asked by the media during a press conference whether he felt discriminated against following the Prime Minister’s decision.
Dr Farrugia had stated that Mr Mercieca is the “king of eye operations” while adding that he had deeply missed seeing his patients who had become a big part of his life.