I have to admit that I have not been in election mode these last 10 days or so of electoral campaigning because my father, who had been ill, passed away.
Dr Simon Mercieca is senior lecturer, Department of History et, dying as he did in the middle of the campaign made me reflect on other aspects of the electoral procedure that normally escapes the scrutiny of political rhetoric and media attention. The fact that I am writing while voting is taking place but before the results are officially announced is being done purposefully. My father’s death made me face up to the realities of our health care system and just how vulnerable we are when faced with merciless bureaucracy and mismanagement. My comments herein should only be interpreted as a deep-felt need to appeal to the authorities to take stock so that others do not have to go through what my family has experienced.
If one had any doubts that our health system is not functioning as well as ought to be expected has been highlighted by the report which appeared in the press on this one day of ‘silence’ prior to our citizens going to vote tomorrow. I refer to the disturbing declaration made by a German couple whose son died off Dingli Cliffs and whose organs disappeared. Were it not for his parents requesting a second autopsy back home in Germany in the hope of finding out the true cause of their son’s death, this inexplicable abuse would have gone undetected. German doctors have no interest to cover-up the truth and organs just do not disappear into thin air. Unfortunately, what clearly results from this incident is that we have here another example that our health system is not functioning properly or ethically.
In recent weeks I have had ample opportunity to witness the mal-functioning of our system while watching over my father as he was being treated by our national health care system during the final stages of his life.
A staunch defender of the social reforms introduced by Dom Mintoff in the health sector, I can still remember my father defending the introduction of National Insurance at my grandfather’s villa in Attard and now owned by a leading defender of the working classes. I was very young then and my grandfather was a self-made business man who believed that workers should follow his example; work hard in order to build their own fortune and escape poverty. My father, instead, was of a different opinion. He was brilliant at arithmetic and loved education. However, with the outbreak of WWII his studies were interrupted and he started working at the Air Ministry as an assistant fitter the day after Malta was awarded the George Cross in 1942. It was a time when fitters – equivalent to-day to our motor mechanics – did not only need to know the trade but also know how to create their own tools when necessary.
Having worked for the British until the final run down that led to events in 1979, my father worked in the shadow on an English system that guaranteed its employees a pension and exposed them to the English health-care system. Therefore, like many of the British Service personnel in Malta, they were all behind Mintoff when he spoke about pensions and National Health Insurance. Working for the British meant my father had a pension but he also believed that this should be extended to all the population. He also believed in a similar health care system to that in the UK. Next came the break with Mintoff thanks to the corrupt manner in which these employees were treated in the final run-down but he continued believing in our health system till the end. However, he never accepted that it is free. In truth, as an employee, he paid his share of contribution through what is known as the National Insurance system. My father was totally in favour that pension and health insurance should be paid to the State rather than to private insurance companies. He was absolutely right. To-day we are still paying our National Insurance but politicians have had the audacity to change its entire concept. They maintain that our healthcare is free and that NI is some form of taxation. This has stealthily brought on a situation where private insurance is being introduced over and above what is paid to government by the individual. Private hospitals logically attract those who are privately insured although in certain cases these patients often still have to end up at our State hospital for reasons which I will not go into here. Meanwhile our State hospitals are discharging patients as soon as possible even when the patient still needs expert care which is not available elsewhere.
In the last few months of his life, my father was in the Old People’s Home in Żejtun. On Saturday May 27, the Home was closed to all visitors since voting was taking place on the premises. My father was already moribund or nearly so but none of us could go and sit with him throughout the day. On Monday May 29 he had an appointment at Mater Dei and he was taken there. He was so frail that the nurse had to find a harness to tie him to his wheelchair to prevent him from falling out of it. At Mater Dei it was discovered that the biopsy results were not yet available.
Even the nurses realised that he desperately needed palliative care. He needed drip, oxygen and appropriate constant supervision. He received practically none of this at the Żejtun Home since it does not cater for those who are at death’s door. My father was returned to the Żejtun home on the Old People’s Bus tied to a wheel chair! Individuals with far less serious conditions are kept in hospital and/or are transported by ambulance.
What I wish to underline here is that at all cost the hospital had to discharge him despite his condition to make space for other more urgent cases. So it now been made abundantly clear to me that a person dying of cancer is no longer considered an urgent case and does not need relief from suffering at the end. What I also discovered in hospital is even more distressing. Palliative care only starts to be administrated after the biopsy results are known. In my father’s case these tests took at least 2 weeks by which time my father was gone. No urgency here for the tests to be hastened. But what I find mind boggling is that if the results of the tests are not available, our hospital system denies and refuses to give a person visibly dying of cancer any form of palliative care!
Despite all that politicians repeatedly declare and are quoted in the press regarding our Health System, some individuals dying of cancer are denied the privilege of dying peacefully and what is worse, their dignity is not safeguarded at all because of bureaucracy or callousness. Or, is it something else? My father was courageous enough to face the shortcoming with determination because of his strong Christian character. However, it is clear to me that for those who are not well connected or have friends, the health system is destined to fail them even in the basics. I first thought that this was a fluke case that concerned only my father but to my dismay I have discovered that a number of others have had to go down the same ruthless path.
Were our journalists - who heavily and repeatedly cover all the fundraising that goes on the island for all the good causes under the sun - to dedicate some of their time to looking into the failings of our basic needs and interview those who have undergone such heartless incidents, I am sure that the money donated for all the good causes would fall drastically. Possibly that is why journalists prefer shying from the truth. The truth is too unpleasant. Let’s just go on as though everything is running smoothly.