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Matthew Vella
At least 50 doctors are to get their own individual office space at Mater Dei Hospital, a spokesperson at St Luke’s Hospital has confirmed.
The arrangement is part of an agreement with the Medical Association (MAM) to get as many consultants as possible into their own individual office, rather than having to share office space with other colleagues.
Earlier this month, MAM secretary-general Martin Balzan called the compromise “reasonable” – the original demand was reportedly for around 120 senior medics. But sources said the demand was strongly opposed by many in government.
The pathology department will be getting 19 individual offices, while radiology and the dental department will get eight individual offices each. The cardiac services and hyperbaric unit will get two individual offices, while accident and emergency will have one individual unit.
Other ward foyers like medicine, neurosciences, obstetrics, orthopaedics, surgery and urology will have one individual office.
A SLH spokesperson told MaltaToday the clinical directors and heads of department had been allocated their own office space, while other single-person or the other 43 multi-person offices within the departments would be left at the discretion of the heads.
The MAM has been adamant over private space for doctors to be able to handle their administrative work. “There is less space at the Mater Dei hospital because of the area taken up by the medical school and administrative quarters,” Dr Balzan told MaltaToday two weeks ago. “Ideally, each consultant was to have their own office as intended in the original plan… Government has tried to do what it can given the limited space, and MAM find it to be a reasonable compromise.”
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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