Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne has responded to scrutiny by the Standing Committee of European Doctors, stating that legal notices which remove the requirement for hospitals to be scrutinised over environmental regulations, do not exempt government or other potential developers from observing safety regulations.
The Standing Committee recently sent a letter to the Prime Minister, expressing their concern after hearing reports that parliament intends to waive the current legislative framework relating to the scrutiny and approval of the building and environmental regulations for the construction of public hospitals.
The letter read; “It is at the core of CPME’s work to ensure the best possible quality of healthcare of every patient in Europe. In the context of the Maltese situation, CPME underlines that the achievement of this object is crucially dependent on a legislative framework with effectively prevents possible harmful short and long term consequences to patients being treated in Malta, including those seeking cross border healthcare, doctors and other healthcare professionals which might result from this legislation”.
“CPME wishes to highlight that legislation which fails to achieve this objective risks not only the obvious danger of structural deficiencies but may also result in non compliance with national and EU laws on radiation and the handling of radioactive materials as well as the safety of facilities handling biological material. We therefore call upon you to take effective action to safeguard the sustainability of the high quality of healthcare services in Malta and support all efforts of the Medical Association of Malta to this end.”
The CPME called on government to take effective action to safeguard “the sustainability of the high quality of healthcare services in Malta and support all efforts of the Medical Association of Malta to this end.”
In response, Mr Fearne said: “ the Legal Notices that they are referring to, for the first time oblige government and all other potential investors, to limit developments on the five sites indicated, i.e. Mater Dei Hospital, Gozo General Hospital, Mt Carmel Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and St Vincent De Paul, to medically related developments only. Occupational Health and Safety regulations need to be observed. Medical radiation matters full under the remit of the Radiation Protection Board (set up in 2003) and are subject to scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The legal notices mentioned do not exempt government or other potential developers from observing these safety regulations”.