Busy Mater Dei medical professionals are taking up duties in Gozo to keep the hospital there in business bridging the gap until doctors are recruited permanently for the hospital there.
I have spoken to Martin Balzan of the Medical Association of Malta who clarified who will be taking up duties in Gozo in the current crisis. The Sunday Times reported last Sunday it would be consultants taking up these duties but it will actually be Higher Specialist Trainees that will be taking up medicine duties in Gozo. They will be joined by resident specialists.
The anaesthesia department will be manned by resident specialists while paediatrics will be provided by consultants and resident specialists.
The MAM tried to facilitate the efforts of its members who offered to help out in Gozo by finding accommodation for its members there. Martin Balzan told me the MAM gave up on this not least because the MAM hopes for this measure to be strictly temporary as doctors at Mater Dei are already very busy without these Gozo extra-duties.
Steward Health Care will instead be paying Malta-based doctors a €120 daily allowance to pay for their accommodation while in Gozo.
Salaries of doctors working at Gozo General, St Luke’s and Karin Grech Hospitals, operated by Steward Healthcare Hospitals, are paid by the government.
