Primary Health Care and Local Councils team up for community clinic overhaul

Roseanne Camilleri, CEO at Primary Health Care and Mario Fava, the President of the Local Councils Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the overhaul of local health centres in terms of renovation, upgrading to apparatus and a supply of doctors.

The document was signed at the Ministry of Health in Valletta.

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne said, "A total of 54 dispensaries and community clinics around Malta and Gozo see a total of 200,000 patients a year. With this agreement, local councils are bound to keep maintaining their services in a good condition."

Relative work between the two departments will start in the following weeks.

The local councils will also be charged with the upkeep of community clinics (bereg) in the hopes of improving standards and increasing prevention.

"Most ailments can be prevented," Fearne said. "The local councils will also be responsible for providing consultations and medical advice."

Some community clinics, Fearne claimed, were in dire need of renovation, but Roseanne Camilleri confirmed that work on these clinics was already underway, namely the ones in Birzebbuga, Kalkara and Marsaxlokk.

Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government, Silvio Parnis, who was also present at the signing, said, "The consultation period on the White Paper on Local Councils has officially closed and we hope it's tabled in Parliament next year. We're going to make sure that the €53 million per year that government grants to local councils will go back to the citizens."

This year's budget provided an unprecedented increase in local government funding, an increasing of €7 million.