Momentum has voiced its support for doctors and called for healthcare reform.

It said that reports of shifts lasting up to 32 hours, inadequate rest, insufficient supervision and doctors having to drive after prolonged duties ”are not issues that should be dismissed as a question of individual resilience. They are signs that our healthcare system needs reform.”

Graziella Spiteri, executive member of Momentum, said, “doctors need a system that protects their well-being while enabling them to provide safe, high-quality care that patients deserve. Better staffing, proper rest periods, adequate supervision, safe transport after long shifts and confidential access to mental health support must be part of that reform.”

She said it has already proposed changes aimed at reducing pressure on our health system, including additional 24-hour regional health centres to reduce pressure on Mater Dei and bring healthcare services closer to communities. ”We have also proposed a more person-centred approach to healthcare and stronger support for services such as palliative care.”

”The Government needs to listen to the doctors raising these concerns and begin a serious process of healthcare reform, working with medical professionals and other healthcare workers to build a system that works both for patients and those who care for them,” she said.

Spiteri added, “we cannot expect healthcare professionals to keep carrying an unsustainable burden and then call it resilience. A healthy healthcare system must also care for the people who keep it running.

“It is also in the interests of hospital patients that the doctors attending to them are fully rested and not overworked.”

Momentum concluded by saying that it stands with Malta’s doctors and other healthcare professionals who are speaking openly about the pressures affecting their working conditions and mental health.

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