A healthy people, a happy people

Abstract

After the Conclusion of the 1973-1980 Development Plan, I cannot but show my satisfaction on seeing the results of the considerable progress achieved in the Health and Environment Sectors in our Country. As I had the occasion of stating during the World Health Assembly last year, the process of the economic development through which Malta is currently passing has created new problems in the field of Public Health. These problems are those always encountered through the industrialisation. For some of these pro- blems we were already prepared. For others, as in the case of all other countries in a stage of development, we have had to depend on the experience of developed countries which had already passed through the same stage. It was therefore important for us to increase our direct contacts both with foreign countries and with the relevant international organisations. Since we started our National Health Scheme on 1 April, 1979 with the introduction of free hospitalisation, we have continued to enlarge this Scheme by extending the community care services by nurses and midwives, as well as domiciliary care and treatment, on 1 January 1980. This seMce to which every-Maltese and Gozitan is entitled, is now free to all the population. On 1 May 1980, we introduced a General Practitioner Emergency Service, operating from the Government Polyclinic in Floriana. This service ensures that the public can obtain medical attention at all times, should any emergency occur. Exactly one year after this, we introduced family welfare clinics, staffed by specialists in this field. In order to further improve our community and district Services, we have recently undertaken a programme of modernization of Government clinics, which so far has already included the opening of a new clinic at Santa Lucia, and the transfer of other clinics to larger and more appropriate premises. We have also opened a new Polyclinic at Paola. This a programme which will continue indefinitely, as together with the expansion and extension of the Services we provide, we have also to continue increasing the facilities neces- sary for these Services. In these last years, my Ministry has given a strong emphasis to hospital modernisaion, where not only we have added to the medi- cal facilities available but also provided all the possible comforts both for the patient and for the visitor. One of the largest items of work performed was the erection of the Karin Grech Children's Hospital, which was inuagurated in November 1979. I can also mention the considerable extension to the Out-patients Depart- ment at St Luke's Hospital, and, in the same hospital, the erection of a new Maternity Unit containing around a hundred and seventy beds. This Unit can be termed a self-contained Women's hospital, fully equiped with all necessities, and together with the Karin Grech Hospital, forms a modern Mother-and-Child Complex. The number of projects we have realised in the hospitals of Malta and Gozo is so large that I would need volumes to describe them all. I must not omit to mention the importance we have attached to the elderly, as we pledged, both in the provison of hospital and community services, and in the opening of the Haz-Zmien complex at Mtarfa in July, 1979. This complex is the first of a series of similar ones which are already planned for the future implementation. In the field of the Environment, which is extremely vast and intimately related to that of Health, we have introduced legal and administrative measures to control air and sea pollution, to protect both workers and the general public from the various hazards arising out of such pollution. In order to continue improving our Public Cleansing Services we are purchasing a number of modern refuse compression and other vehicles to cope with the ever- increasing demand. We have also established Malta's first Nature Reserve at Ghadira, and since I January this year, we have started to assume responsibility for the maintenance and embellishment of various localities in Malta. Because of our small size, there will always remain a number of specialised matters which will require recourse to overseas countries. By means of the Agreements we have signed, and through other contacts, we have provided new opportunities through which local patients can obtained specialized treatment in overseas hospitals and clinics whenever necessary. We have done a lot to constantly improve the Health of our population, and we shall contiune to honour the pledge of the Socialist Government to keep the Maltese population healthy so that it can continue to give its contribution to the good of our country.