Free healthcare service ‘national gold’, says Bishop
Cross-party consensus on biggest health challenge: striking balance between healthcare requirements and citizen expectations.
Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia and shadow minister Claudio Grech agreed that the biggest challenge in healthcare remains striking a balance between healthcare requirements and citizen expectations.
With an ever-ageing population and increase in life expectancy, the burden on free healthcare services will continue to increase as the right to a timely and quality service has to be maintained.
A right, which was echoed by Gozo Bishop Mgr Mario Grech in his intervention during a seminar on sustainable healthcare organsied by the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.
Grech, whose intervention was more of a moral nature, said the provision of free healthcare service should be considered as "national gold", a service which should not been seen as the sole responsibility of the government but of the community as a whole.
"It is a grave immoral shortcoming when we allow free medicines to go to waste; when we take more than we require, denying this service to those who need them," he said.
Grech said the premise for a patient to enjoy a free medical service was government's responsibility. This however didn't mean that the community should act irresponsibly: "The community should be grateful for the service but should also show solidarity.It is also for the community to adopt measures which would make healthcare accessible to all."
The Bishop expressed concern over the "health poor", patients who requested cheaper medicines or couldn't afford to buy the required medicine.
He noted that while the private sector repeatedly turned to the state for support, it failed to come up with its own proposal which did not require state aid. He expressed frustration at how businessmen kept turning towards the institutions, expecting something in return.
Grech noted that despite healthcare being a "human service", it was also a reality that those who stepped into the medical world found a goldmine.
"As a spiritual leader, it is not my competence to offer technical solutions. But I have the responsibility to be the voice of the poor and to appeal to the authorities not to introduce measures in the healthcare reform which could hinder those who are already suffering."
The Bishop said he was not passing judgement on politicians when he noted that, undoubtedly, the poor will continue to increase. "We live in a world of inequalities, where today's poor are poorer than yesterday's and where the rich are richer."