Changes to restrictive IVF law only after medical review

Labour leader Joseph Muscat has said a new Labour government would not amend the newly enacted law for IVF, until the new regime for assisted reproduction is put into action and seen at work.

"This is no game. We should not change a law that has not even started working yet," Muscat told Paul Sultana, the head of the St James Hospital's medical laboratory, in a visit to the private hospital today.

The hospital, which pioneered IVF and offered the service for the past 22 years when no law was in place, will have to stop performing standard in vitro fertilization and instead adopt the novel science of egg freezing.

Malta's new law bans embryo freezing, but now offers egg freezing on the national health register. Critics say the law is too restrictive.

"We need to see the law in action before we can take steps," Muscat said. "What we must do is see that IVF is placed on the NHS. From then on, it remains up to medical professionals, who still enjoy a very big say in how the procedure is carried out, to take stock of the situation and, after a few years, give their advice to the government of the day," Muscat said.

"Healthcare should remain free... Labour is committed that all health services are delivered in the best way possible... but there is room for greater collaboration between the government and the private health sector," Muscat said, emphasising the viability of private-public partnership agreements that benefit patients.

Muscat said he would adopt a proposal by St James Hospital owner Josie Muscat, who suggested that a new government should work more closely with the private sector by establishing a commission composed of government health decision-makers and representatives of the private health sector.

"A permanent working group would bring together the private and public health sector to further enhance cooperation."

Muscat also reiterated Labour's pro-business message, insisting that Labour "does not see the private health sector as an antagonist but as complementary with the public service. A concrete example would be a situation where the public sector works in tandem with investment made by the private sector.

"A situation where an investment by the private sector in some service which is made redundant by similar investment by the public sector, which would then offer the service free of charge, is exactly the sort of situation we want to avoid."

Muscat underscored the health sector's role as a source of employment, accusing the government of making a strategic mistake when years go it had it capped the number of students enrolling into the nursing course.