The Minister for Health and Active Ageing, Jo Etienne Abela, inaugurated the new Cardio-Respiratory Department at the Gozo General Hospital.

Through an investment of €500,000, services are being further strengthened by offering a wide range of tests and specialised services in the cardiovascular and respiratory fields, the government said.

Minister Jo Etienne Abela explained that with this investment, the clinic will be offering around 21 services related to cardiovascular and respiratory specialties, which will increase to 23 in the coming weeks. Among the services provided are blood pressure monitoring, a cardiac rehabilitation clinic, exercise stress tests, ECGs, an echocardiography clinic, an electrophysiology clinic, a heart failure clinic, Holter monitoring, lung function tests, pacemaker and ICD checks, paediatric echocardiograms, as well as stress echocardiograms. 

Minister Abela said that this project was carried out over the past eight months as part of the preparations for the extended facilities at the hospital. The implantable loop recorder (ILR) was also introduced, along with reviews of PAP respiratory machines and sleep study tests. In addition, the number of home sleep study machines was increased, along with several CPAP and BIPAP machines, a spirometry machine, a stress ECG machine, a portable 16-lead ECG machine, and a Renamic Neo machine for pacemaker monitoring.

The Minister went on to say that the procurement process is currently underway for a plethysmography machine and another echocardiography machine, so that the Cardio-Respiratory Department can offer services of excellent quality to Gozitan patients, directly in Gozo.