Meals on wheels prone to health and safety issues

The meals on wheels programme is currently facing numerous health and safety issues while the limited provision of food is struggling to satisfy the ever-increasing demand, Parliamentary Secretary for Aging Franco Mercieca said this evening.

Addressing Parliamentary Family Affairs Committee, Mercieca held that despite being cooked at 7:00am, meals are being transported in non-refrigerated vans and transported to the elderly six hours later at 1:00pm.

In a dig at the previous administration and the situation the PL government inherited, the Parliamentary Secretary insisted that coupled with the diminishing health and safety issues, the discrepancies in the allocation of the meals is not satisfying the demand.

Consequently, Mercieca explained, due to the inability of the state service to transport the meals efficiently, more elderly are requesting to be transferred into the already-crammed-state-owned elderly homes.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesperson for the elderly and former Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea called for the government to stop "moaning" about the situation it inherited from the previous PN administration and start implementing new measures.

The former parliamentary secretary insisted that the government must "stop juggling with people's feelings in an effort to score political points" and argued that after seven months of the Labour legislation, the lack of elderly measures is a wake-up call for the government.

On the other hand Franco Mercieca, explained that the government is analysing 49 expressions of interest from private sector investors to enter into a public-private-partnership agreement and provide long-term care services as it looks to offset the daily €340 it spends per person on alternative elderly accommodation.

In the wake of a former social assistant admitting to robbing an elderly man of €1,250, Labour MP Deborah Schembri called for the government to ensure that home workers employed by the state are bound by a code of ethics.

Currently, Mercieca noted, nurses and carers are bound by their own code of ethics, but insisted that the government will be doing its utmost to safeguard the welfare and dignity of the elderly.

Meanwhile, echoing the calls of Mario Galea, the Parliamentary Secretary hinted at the possible overhaul of the present 'out-dated telecare services'. Dubbing it as inefficient and unsustainable, Mercieca explained that the implementation of a new technology and new measures is in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the revision of the shelved-dementia-strategy is in the pipeline for amendments. Researcher and senior lecturer Charles Scerri had previously been appointed with updating the national strategy which would be ultimately presented for public consultation.