‘Patient was afforded timely and excellent medical care’

PN MP claims ‘cover up’

The government has published the conclusions of an inquiry into an allegedly botched helicopter transfer of a patient from Gozo General Hospital to Malta, inviting PN MP Chris Said to review it in its entirety.

The inquiry report concludes that the unnamed patient “was afforded timely and excellent medical care both while in Gozo and in Malta.”

The health ministry has said that although the full report cannot be published owing to ethical concerns and privacy law, MP Said will be given the opportunity to examine the entire report confidentially so that he may be able to assure the public that good practice and proper procedure were followed.

MP Said had alleged in parliament that a helicopter meant to be available at all times to carry patients between Malta and Gozo was not available on the day of the incident last August, resulting in the patient’s death when he went into cardiac arrest.

He said he was informed that at 10.30am on 24 August, doctors had ordered a man to be flown to Mater Dei Hospital, but, as noted in the patient’s medical file, a helicopter was not available. The patient was subsequently transferred to Gozo General Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit. The helicopter had allegedly arrived seven hours later.

MP Said also claimed that Gozo General Hospital’s CEO had taken photos to make it look as though the helicopter was available in order to discredit his Facebook post on the issue.

The conclusions of the inquiry read, however, that the helicopter was available. Said questioned why the inquiry had never been published and accused the health minister of being complicit in a cover-up, adding that the inquiry had not been launched to find out what had gone wrong, but to cover up what had really happened. He called on the minister to publish the full inquiry report – a request partially acceded to yesterday.

The published conclusions of the report are as follows:

“The late Mr xxxxxx was afforded timely and excellent medical care both while in Gozo and in Malta. Medical care and treatment given was according to current established international guidelines and practices (European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for the Management of STEMI, 2017).

“Protocols are in place to determine when patients need to be transferred from GGH to MDH.

“Over the past years, before the air ambulance helicopter was available, the AFM helicopter was used to transfer patients between GGH and MDH. This arrangement is now only being used when the air ambulance helicopter is out of service for either planned or unplanned maintenance.

“Protocols are in place on what needs to be done once it is determined that a patient needs to be transferred from GGH to MDH.

“Arrangements are in place to ensure that the helicopter/air ambulance is always available in case a transfer of patient is required.

“It is considered normal practice to make use of the Gozo Channel ferry for the transfer of patients if GGH medical staff considers it necessary.

“The procedures followed were in line with established normal practice and protocols.

“No difficulties were encountered during the transfer of the patient from GGH to MDH.

“Patient was only transferred to MDH once the attending physician considered that it was safe to do so.

“The air ambulance helicopter was available when a decision was taken that the patient needed transfer to MDH.

“The air ambulance helicopter was out of service for scheduled maintenance from the 22 to the 24 August and it was put back in operation according to plan.

“The backup plan of when the air ambulance helicopter was out of service was active at during the time the helicopter was out of service.

“Protocols’ documents presented look very informal with no document management features, like reference numbers, who prepared the document, who approved the document, any revisions made, when the next review is due.

“There is no formal and official agreement with the Gozo Channel ferry to give priority to transfer of patients; it is a traditional arrangement and understandably on a case-by-case basis.

“The Board has recommended the formalization of the protocol documents, the formalization of the of the agreement with the Gozo Channel Company Limited to give priority to transfer of patients, and that there is a set of Key Performance Indicators against what the service being offered to GGH for the transfer of patients can be measured.”