Second outpatients wing planned, to include five-floor underground carpark

Government is planning to build a second outpatients building at Mater Dei Hospital that will include five storeys of underground parking, in a bid to tackle waiting lists and streamline services in the outpatients department, health minister Chris Fearne announced on Monday.

The minister said that the government had already discussed the project with the Planning Authority as it recognised the need to ease the pressure faced by the outpatients department, which registered more than 500,000 visits each year.

Fearne was addressing a public discussion meeting under the umbrella of the ‘Gvern li Jisma’ (A government that listens) series, together with tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis, at Fort St Elmo.

He said the government was also considering a €3.2 million non-medical skills course aimed at improving inter-personal skills and behaviour of all employees within the health sector, with the cooperation of all unions involved.

Fearne said that the typical waiting time on the new primary healthcare hotline was around three minutes, two minutes under the set target, with between 1,500 and 2,000 calls being made each day.

The health sector was a major challenge for the Labour administration but, four years on, great strides had been registered in the quality and quantity of services offered across the board, he said.

“When I was initially asked to take on this ministry, I was warned off by many people, aware of the many challenges in the sector,” he said. “But today I am proud of what we have achieved, with waiting lists brought to acceptable levels and no patients sleeping in the corridors, to mention but two of our succes stories.”

Fearne said that the government was so confident in its systems in place that it had started to offer full reimbursement of costs to patiemts who choose to undergo treatment in the private sector if their set operation date at Mater Dei is postponed for any reason.

On a statement issued by the Nationalist Party earlier in the day, Fearne said the PN seemed to have grown to be afraid of private involvement and investment.

Tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis revealed that a new energy efficiency scheme involving the government and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association will be announced in the coming weeks.

He said the ministry was also working hard on finding suitable funds to finance an embellishment project in Bugibba, another project on which the government was working with the MHRA.

MHRA president Tony Zahra said he hoped to be able to use a press conference scheduled for Wednesday next week to announce when the Bugibba project would start.

He thanked the tourism minister and all those involved in the industry for ensuring that toruism remain the motor that drives the country’s economy.

Zammit Lewis said that Malta was a destination of choice in many sectors, including tourism but also medical tourism, through the efforts of the present administration.

“We are proud that in the past four years, we attracted to Malta more tourists than the Nationalist Party did in 20 years,” he said. “This is thanks to the work of the ministry with numerous other authorities, departments and organisations.”

Zammit Lewis said that the number of tourists that came to Malta in January registered a double-digit growth over the same period last year.

“We are now working on a skills card for employees in the tourism industry to ensure that we recognise the achievements of all involved,” he said.

On Air Malta, the minister said the government remained committed to help get the company back on its feet in the wake of the bad decisions taken, or the lack of decision-making, under the Nationalist administrations.

Zammit Lewis said that in the ast year, the Labour government had also attracted €105 million in the film industry, more than the previous administration had managed to record in six years.