Dr Harry Vassallo, Chairperson of AD, has said that the lack of medical staff and nurses is causing a serious inconvenience to those patients who cannot be treated in an adequate time. “The extra suffering because of waiting, by those who are already sick or those who need to be medically treated, has become an everyday experience for those who use the service of the policlinics,” Dr Vassallo said. “The setting up of a new hospital does not address in any way this crisis in the health services, which has been mounting for several years,” added Dr Vassallo.

Because of the lack of qualified staff, the likelihood is that some other polyclinic service will have to be stopped. The medical staff is not finding adequate conditions in the public health services, so the number of doctors and nurses that work abroad or with private hospitals continues to increase. It is estimated that 75% of the medicine students who will complete their studies this year, will go abroad,” Dr Vassallo said.

“The fact that the United Kingdom offers the possibility for these students to carry out their pre-registration there, does not help. Students can leave Malta earlier than before, without having served in the state hospitals in Malta and Gozo,” said Dr Vassallo. “The fact that the structures to advance in a medical career are much better in other countries than in Malta continues to put the Maltese state health services at a disadvantage and hence continues to increase the crisis,” said Dr Vassallo.

“While the recent increase in pay of doctors serving in hospitals do alleviate the problem, this increase affect mostly those in the higher scales and not all doctors in the same way. There are some who are going to be disadvantaged in their pensions, while the publicised increases have not yet come into effect,” said Dr Vassallo.

Dr Vassallo says that this crisis originates from way back and from next year it will also affect the pharmacy sector. Those who will be affected the most will be the patients, doctors and medical staff who choose to face these ever-increasing challenges.

Dr Vassallo added that the Prime Minister invited us a number of times to judge him on what he has done. “All those who face these difficulties, day after day, have already judged him for that person that needs to be responsible for the actions of a government that has now been terminated. I hope that the invitation posed by Dr Gonzi is still valid and he has not become too sensitive of criticism, now that the elections are here,” concluded Dr Vassallo.

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