Humane rapport part and parcel of healthcare services - Gozo Bishop

The Bishop of Gozo, Monsignor Mario Grech, this afternoon inaugurated the first seminar of the Commission for Health Caregivers Pastoral Care.

Held in one of the lecture auditoriums in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Mater Dei, the seminar was aptly entitled 'A cure with a human face', and was attended to by representatives from both the medical profession including nurses, doctors and general health caregivers, and members of the clergy.

Members of the public and press were also in attendance.

The aim of the Commission is to promote pastoral care in the field of caregiving, both for patients and for the caregivers themselves.

It aims to provide a service to all health care workers, supported by ethical values within an environment of spiritual nourishment.

Addressing the seminar, Mgr Grech said that the founding of such a Commission was very positive.

He said that it was no coincidence that the word 'hospital' derived from the word 'hospitality', stressing that the value of emotional care was priceless. Every healthcare institution, he said, must strive to 'have a human face', and not only concentrate on finding medical advancements.

He explained that whilst material possessions may cause a separation between persons in society, physical illness, pain and suffering served as trials which everybody must battle through at some point in their lives, thus 'putting us all in the same category'.

"Sickness does not make a distinction between the young and old, the well-to-do and the poor, or the educated and the ones lacking in it," he said.

Mgr Grech said that it was often forgotten that, besides the sick found at hospital, there were many others who were suffering illness at home.

"There are even those with an illness and living at home alone. These must bear the suffering of their illness, as well as the suffering brought on by loneliness," Grech said.

Mgr Grech said that it must always be kept in mind that a patient is, above all, a human being in a vulnerable situation.

"A humane rapport with patients is necessary and this will only be possible if medical professionals understand and get to know their patients properly," he said.

Mgr Grech said that even in cases where medicine was not able to cure a person's illness, a humane rapport could serve to ease the patient's passage through his or her passing away.

In a reference to the recent reports on Mater Dei which have come out, Mgr Grech warned that the environment at Mater Dei had to be up-to-standards.

Furthermore, he said that often the rights of the weak, become weak themselves, as the persons in question are often too vulnerable to understand fully what they are going through.

He said this was even more of a reason for caregivers to give these persons the care they deserve.