Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne today inaugurated the recently upgraded Cardiac Catheterisation Suites at Mater Dei Hospital.
The upgrade saw €1 million invested. A request was made to the National Development and Social Fund to fund this project and the Board of Governors resolved to award this social grant to the Department of Cardiology.
The upgrade, this newsroom was told by Chairman of the Department of Cardiology Robert Xuereb (above), will result in a 60% reduction in the radiation dose levels incurred during procedures.
It also allows for more complex procedures, as well as less invasive ones.
He stressed that the upgrade was needed, given that the suites were ten years old.
The two suits see around 3,000 cases a year handled, with 800 of these having been angiograms, however this number is reducing as less invasive procedures are introduced.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that every government has contributed to bettering healthcare, building upon what the previous government would have left behind.
He said that in 2012, €381 million was spent on healthcare, and in the budget for 2019 €781 million is earmarked. He said that in two years or so Malta would reach a stage where Malta would be investing a billion Euros in healthcare.
He spoke of the importance to keep improving life expectancy and quality of life.
Muscat mentioned that high on the priority list is investment in the mental healthcare sector, and mentioned the acute psychiatric hospital which will be constructed at Mater Dei Hospital, which will be a step to remove the stigma surrounding mental health as such patients would not need to go to a completely different locality.
Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne addressed the press, and said that back when he was a child, when someone would have a heart attack the only care given was ten days bed rest and praying. He said that there have been leaps forward in medicine since then.
He said that tens of millions have been invested in cardiology in Malta.
Photos Alenka Falzon