In a joint statement on Friday morning, thirteen medical associations are calling for the re-introduction of further Covid-19 restrictive measures, warning that “drastic measures are needed in the short term” and that Health Services are “facing a crisis.”

President of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Mark Formosa, on behalf of the Associations, said that the “Health Services are facing a crisis which will only get worse if such restrictions are not increased and effectively enforced.”

The statement warned that, “with an increase in community spread, despite the measures which have already been reintroduced, we anticipate a continued increase in hospital admissions, especially with winter around the corner, mirrored by an increase in the fatality rate together with the prospect of a critical care service which is already unable to cope with demand.”

The Associations went on to say that, “treatment in all spheres, that people have come to take for granted, will not be deliverable, should the health services be under strain. Many elective procedures have already been cancelled. Scenes such as those witnessed in Bergman, Italy in March-April of this year should be avoided at all costs.”

They stressed that “we must protect the right of sick infected persons to have access to proper critical care in order to have a good chance of survival.”

“We must also protect the individuals delivering this highly stressful critical care from emotional burn out. They must be protected in order that the standard of care is maintained at its highest level throughout,” they added.

“The elderly vulnerable and the young immune-compromised must be protected so that they can look forward to a life post-COVID-19,” the Associations said. “We must all pull in the same direction so that we achieve the best possible results in the shortest time to put this nightmare scenario behind us and start living our normal lives again.”

The Associations concluded by saying that “Half-hearted measures will not work. We need drastic action in the short term so that both our health and the economy will begin to recover in the near future.”

The joint statement was signed by; by The Malta Association of Public Health Medicine, the Association of Anaesthetists of Malta, the Malta College of Pathologists, the Association of Surgeons Malta, the Association of Physicians of Malta, the Association of Emergency Physicians, the Malta College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Malta Paediatric Association, the Malta Association of Psychiatry, the Malta Association of Dermatology and Venereology, the Malta Association of Radiologists and Nuclear Medicine Physicians, the Geriatric Medicine Society of Malta and the Malta Association of Ophthalmologists.

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