The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses President, Paul Pace, has said in a statement today that the Union is not in favour of the adoption of PPP in the Health Services due to increase in costs and lessening the level of care provided.
“Private Public Partnership (PPP) is a catalyst for increasing costs and expenses in the Health Sector’s budget while decreasing the level of care offered to those in need.”
In the past when outsourcings of surgical operations were allocated to the private sector, the cost per operation was much higher if such surgery was to be done in Mater Dei Hospital. In fact such out sourcing was short lived especially when hefty bills had to be paid, the Union said.
The MUMN pointed out that “PPP in the community sector does not make sense especially when the Cospicua Health Centre is giving a sterling service to the residents of the Cottonera area with no complaints…..so why privatise and increase costs for the tax payer?”
MUMN added that it recently had a meeting with the nurses at the Cospicua Health Centre nurses and “quite a substantial number of issues had emerged regarding the issue of privatisation – from data protection of passwords to specific health computer programmes linking to Mater Dei Hospital.”
“One of the issues was that while all Health Centres offer the service of the Anti Coagulant Clinic (ACC), which recently all Health Centres switched to a more efficient service where nurses can take a small blood sample from the ear lobe and the result is instant, at the Cospicua Health Centre, where there is a designated room and all the necessary equipment, such service was not started. This service is being postponed due to the privatisation plans of the health centre.”
The cost of running the Cospicua Health Centre would greatly increase if privatisation is to occur, not to mention the nurse’s expertise at the Cospicua Health Centre would all be lost since none of the nurses working in the Primary Care Department are willing to work within the private sector, said the Union.
“It is also a great pity that Claudio Grech, Shadow Minister for Health, has taken PPP into the heart of the PN political agenda without any consultation with stake holders.,” the Union said. “MUMN appeals to Grech that there would be no collaboration from MUMN if PPP programmes would be the main driving force to any PN political agendas if the PN would ever be back in Government.”
“Therefore MUMN is appealing the Government to consider seriously such PPP programmes which after all will result with increased running costs for the tax payer parallel with lessening the level of the services provided,” the Union concluded.