The Malta Independent on Sunday
Sorting out patients with a new Mater Dei outpatients building
The Malta Independent on Sunday speaks to Foundation for Medical Services (FMS) CEO CARMEN CIANTAR about the new outpatients block at Mater Dei Hospital, the upcoming new acute mental hospital, regional health centres and the possibility of a second general hospital for Malta The new Outpatients building: what can you tell us about it, the services that will be offered, completion date, etc?
The FMS is currently working on the construction of a new Outpatients Block and underlying car park which will result in the much-needed migration of outpatient services at Mater Dei Hospital to a new, modern and larger facility. This project has been necessitated by the increased demand for services as well as our desire to continuously improve the efficiency and overall level of service offered.
Crucially, this new building will result in freed-up space in the main Mater Dei facility that will allow the hospital to increase its bed capacity.
Being a €170 million investment, this project is a substantial part of the FMS’ €330 million portfolio, which is a clear indication of its magnitude. Our aim is to deliver – in five years – a multi-level, one-stop-shop facility including an underlying car park. The way we are designing the building ensures that it will house the clinical services currently offered at the Outpatients Department while also integrating new services that are currently scattered in different areas. Above all, we are excited to be working on such an important enrichment of outpatient services that will ultimately be more efficient and will cater better for the thousands of patients whom we are proud to serve.
What about the acute Mental Health Hospital at MDH site?
The new acute psychiatric hospital is a unique and ambitious undertaking. It will be the first time that Malta will have an adequate, patient-centred facility to provide acute mental health services, completely replacing the 150-year old Mount Carmel Hospital which can no longer adequately fulfil the expected role of a facility of this nature and which we are gradually going to re-purpose.
The de-stigmatisation of mental health services is linked to the environment in which the provision of such services is given. In this regard, we are eager to deliver a modern hospital that will allow us to make significant progress in terms of mental health care, focusing on developing a holistic, safe and welcoming environment to complement the multi-disciplinary services that it will offer.
The new facility will cater for 120 beds across eight wards and will also provide a day hospital service. We are expecting work on it to begin next year and it should take three years to complete. I must point out that while we are developing this project and restructuring Mount Carmel Hospital, a lot of work is going on to improve and increase mental health services in the community.
Regional Health Centres what is in the pipeline? –
I believe the regional hubs we are developing will be a transformative milestone for our healthcare infrastructure. With this concept, we will provide cohesive primary health care services closer to the community and in a more efficient manner. These hubs will go beyond the health centres to which we have become accustomed, as they are designed to be centres of excellences and one-stop facilities.
Work on the Vincent Moran Paola Regional Hub is already underway and we are targeting completion for 2021. The Paola Hub will serve over 125,000 people in the Southern region.
The scope of the hub is also to be able to provide treatment of minor but urgent conditions which do not need to be referred to Mater Dei Hospital. Ultimately, we are working to ensure that, in the years to come, the burden on Mater Dei’s resources is alleviated in a logical and seamless manner. To this end, a Northern Regional Hub will follow, with these two hubs becoming pillars of our community care, operating on a 24-hour basis and setting the bar for the provision of primary health care services.
Are there any updates planned for smaller health centres and clinics?
Health centres and clinics lie at the very heart of our communi
ties’ health needs and FMS is working very closely with Primary Health Care to maintain and refurbish a number of health centres, while simultaneously building new ones. After a 20-year drought, by next year we will have delivered two new health centres in a two-year period: Kirkop, which we opened last year, and in the heart of Victoria, Gozo. The new health centre in Gozo is a €1.5 million investment which is going to introduce a number of new primary health services in Gozo, such as mental health and diabetes clinics and podiatry services, as well as an additional GP clinic. We are currently also set to start work on the Gzira Health Centre, investing €780,000 to upgrade the infrastructure and ensure accessibility by installing a lift for patients.
It has often been said that, because of the growing population, Malta will need a second general hospital. Is there anything planned in this regard so far?
The Ministry for Health is first and foremost addressing this challenge head on by enhancing our current services and infrastructure and ensuring that they are sustainable. This is why the decentralisation of services, which is evident in the scope of the projects you have mentioned, will have a significant impact on the landscape of our healthcare infrastructure – not only giving better service to our patients but increasing the standards of care at community level.
We are also striving to design and develop projects which are future-proof and can withstand future challenges and demographic changes. All ongoing and future projects are intrinsically linked in the sense that we are investing heavily in primary health services and the modernisation of our facilities, focusing on preventing the need for hospital care as much as possible. Our strategy is to not simply provide a band-aid to address the current challenges imposed by the increased demand for services, but also to redistribute our services and ultimately make a positive impact on our healthcare services for generations to come.
Are there any other projects in the pipeline for Mater Dei?
There are always different projects and initiatives underway at Mater Dei Hospital as we want to ensure the hospital remains best equipped to cater for different challenges, to best serve our patients and provide staff with a gratifying work environment. Early next year, FMS will deliver a highly specialised isolation unit for patients with infectious diseases, ensuring that they are completely separated from other patients at Mater Dei Hospital. This is a highly technical €1.7 million project which is being helped by the EU Asylum and Integration Fund.
We are also involved in completing new offices for the Medical Imaging Department, the previous office space of which will accommodate a new MRI system. We are also in talks with Mater Dei Hospital for a new catheterisation laboratory.
Robotics and AI in medicine. What is being done and what difference does this kind of technology make?
Innovation in health has become a main driver of progress in the way we deliver our services. To give a clear example, FMS was involved in the design of the first automatic robotic system operating in the Maltese healthcare sector which will store and deliver the right medicine and dosage directly to patients at Mater Dei through a pneumatic tube system.
This will ensure that the way medication is distributed becomes more cost and time-efficient, thus improving accuracy and dramatically reducing waste.
The Ministry for Health has invested in such smart technology and will continue to do so, because such systems are revolutionising healthcare and having a positive impact on the service we give our patients.