The Ministry for Health aims to reduce the number of patients waiting for their dentistry appointment at Mater Dei Hospital by introducing a scheme which will allow people to visit a private dental clinic in various localities, all at the expense of the government.

While visiting Borg Falzon's Dental Clinic in Zejtun, Minister for Health Chris Fearne said that this scheme is focused to cater for patients waiting for dental fillings. The scheme started a month ago and three dental clinics are presently participating in the initiative. So far, more than 320 patients have benefitted from this new measure. The three clinics participating in the scheme are in Birkirkara, San Gwann and Zejtun.

Minister Fearne explained that the previous administration had decided to concentrate all dentistry related procedures at Mater Dei Hospital. He said that while the service offered is of high standard, it caused a lot of people to travel from their locality to the hospital every time they have an appointment. He said that government aims to re-introduce government dental care in various localities for the public's convenience.

More than 60,000 people make use of the hospital dentistry each year. A mobile unit, which is run in cooperation with the University of Malta, will also be going round a number of localities, starting off in Floriana.

Mr Fearne said that the government aims to reduce the waiting lists for dental interventions by 2,000 by the end of this year, thus eliminating the waiting list completely.

Earlier this year, the government had already launched a scheme by which patients waiting for hip-replacement, could have had their operation done at a private clinic with the expenses paid by the government.