The Ministry of Health has ruled out any form of privatisation of medical and psychiatric services at Mount Carmel Hospital, a spokesperson told The Malta Independent on Sunday.
The spokesperson added that the recently set up Board of Directors for Mental Health is currently discussing a holistic strategy for mental health in Malta, which will include the establishment of a new mental health facility, as well as the refurbishment of parts of Mount Carmel Hospital.
In October, Shadow Minister for Health Claudette Buttigieg said in her speech in Parliament that mental healthcare services in Malta should not be privatised.
"The most vulnerable people in the country are those who nobody understands due to mental health problems. These are vulnerable people."
She said that no payment system should be introduced in this sector, urging the Minister concerned to view what is going on in the UK.
"With privatisation, the patients will not be at the centre of the service," she said. She also called for a smaller mental health hospital than Mount Carmel, which should be part and parcel of Mater Dei Hospital.
According to information released by Minister Fearne during a parliamentary question, there are over 13,000 people currently receiving psychiatric treatment. This number includes patients receiving treatment at Mount Carmel's Outpatients Department, those receiving treatment at the Psychiatric Outpatients Department at Mater Dei and other government clinics around the island.
Another parliamentary question revealed that the government's budget for community mental health care is €7,198,265. This, Minister Fearne said, is a €1,109,312 improvement on what was allocated in 2012 by the previous administration.
The concern surrounding the possible privatisation of Mount Carmel arose after the privatisation of essential services in Malta, namely those in the health and energy sectors, were flagged as areas of concern that could negatively affect good governance by the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman's Annual Report noted that, in his opinion, his jurisdiction in these areas "was being significantly eroded". This, the Ombudsman believes, will infringe the right of aggrieved individuals to have access to his office. In the health sector, the report says both patients and government employees are "already experiencing a marked diminution of their right of access to the Commissioner for Health and the Ombudsman."
He would later describe the situation, particularly in the way it affects Gozo residents, as an "unacceptable situation that discriminates against a section of the population.
The Ombudsman also recalled that the Commissioner for Health, who had expressed his inability to conduct his own initiative investigations. He had sought assurances from the Ministry for Health that public private partnerships for the provision of essential health services would not prejudice the right of patients and employees within the public health care sector, and that the private sector provider would have recourse to the Commissioner and the Office of the Ombudsman.
"Little progress was registered on this delicate issue till the end of the year under review."
The report suggests that, with regard to PPPs, the powers granted to the Ombudsman should be limited only to the provision of the essential service to patients and "would in no way impinge on other activities of a purely commercial nature of the private companies providing the service".
The Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Health have submitted amendments to the Ombudsman Act for the consideration of the government.
Minister Fearne later told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the Attorney General had informed the ministry that no amendments to the Ombudsman Act were needed as existing legislation already provides protection to patients and employer who will use the Public-Private Partnership health service managed by VGH.
The newsroom is awaiting a reply from Acting Mount Carmel CEO Kevin Schembri.