The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said in a statement today that “although the Gozo General Hospital is equipped with a chemotherapy facility, a number of consultants are still requesting patients to cross over to Malta for their treatment.”
MUMN President Paul Pace, called on the Health Minister Konrad Mizzi to investigate, what he described as “the hijacking of service by certain consultants who it said were undermining not just the Government service but causing hardship for patients.”
Pace said that the Gozo General Hospital was equipped with a state of the art facility for chemotherapy administration. Trained medical doctors and nurses specialised in the administration of chemotherapy were also employed.
In most cases, the nurses administer the treatment while doctors become involved in remote cases where complications might occur, he said.
Pace stated, “Yet, Gozitan patients are still told to travel to Boffa Hospital in Floriana, by certain oncology consultants even though such travelling is literally a nightmare to such weak and vulnerable patients.”
“Some of these patients even have to resort to booking hotel rooms in Malta after chemotherapy. Others simply refuse the treatment so they do not have to travel over to Malta due to bad weather conditions.”
“While MUMN recognises that certain chemotherapy still has to be given in Boffa Hospital due to the short span of time which certain chemotherapy drugs can have on preparation, the vast majority of chemotherapy drugs can be given by the trained nurses at GGH,” the Union said..
MUMN said that it is aware that “certain consultants are purposely not allowing their patients to be treated in Gozo, knowing well enough that Gozo’s hospital can give such treatment. This scaremongering and hard headedness of certain consultants is causing great suffering to patients.”
The Union added that hardly any new patients are being referred to the Gozo hospital’s facility for chemotherapy.”
“The pretext given by certain consultants is patient safety, which does not hold water since two weights, two measures, is being adopted between the consultants, not to mention the inconsistent approach being used even among the oncology consultants themselves,” the union stated-
Pace also said that the MUMN was ready to publish facts and figures if such human suffering persisted.