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Michaela Muscat
A letter sent out by the health division invite private GPs to apply for part-time work has not gone down too well with doctors, after offering them a measly Lm3.75 an hour to work within the public health service.
An irate doctor said the division had not even bothered to address the letters to doctors personally, after the director general and medical consultants at St Luke’s Hospital finally identified the need to beef up skeleton staff at the outpatients department.
The GPs are being asked to work in several sectors, including general medicine, general surgery, urology, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.
“It shows how the health division perceives the value of the family doctor. I was disgusted and immediately put it aside,” the GP told MaltaToday.
The national health service wants more doctors at the outpatients to ensure patients are seen to in a more timely and effective manner, a news that should cheer up patients who have had to endure unbearably long hours waiting to be attended to.
Another irate doctor, who shred the letter of “invite” upon receiving it, called the call for applications a “cat-and-mouse game."
Doctors whose private practice wouldn’t be doing all that well would be tempted by this measly offer. The rest of us are subtly coerced by the tax compliance unit. One way or another, the government is out to get us.”
With the going rate of Lm3.75 per hour, it is highly unlikely that the majority of doctors will be too keen to work lengthy shifts at St Luke’s. The Medical Association of Malta had long been warning the health authorities of the dangers of a brain drain amongst the medical profession.
“We had been insisting for some time now that there is a shortage in this sector. Several consultants are leaving the public sector to work abroad and GPs are opening up their own private clinics,” Medical Association of Malta president Stephen Fava said.
Doctors who spoke to this newspaper complained about the taxman hounding doctors for every last penny: “a plasterer or a tile-layer earns a lot more we would. It‘s just not worth the hassle.”
Doctors have already left the island work abroad where conditions are far superior to what is on offer in Malta, in both the private and the public sector. Younger doctors without the shackles of a family or a mortgage are taking up permanent posts in England and others are taking up locums – temporary duties of doctors who are ill or away on holiday.
Maltese doctors are believed can earn up to Lm500 in a night or two, one GP told this newspaper: “The going rate is ten times as much, so it makes sense to in travel to England to work hard for a week and take the other two weeks off.”
The MAM however claim that still it’s not just about the money. “Abroad it is easier for doctors to advance their careers – career progression is much quicker.
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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