Close to €1 billion health budget includes spend on new free medicines

The health care budget for next year will be a "record" €972 million, Health Minister Chris Fearne said and this includes €138 million for COVID-19 measures.

Fearne said the budget also includes a spend of €9.9 million on free medicines that will be introduced next year. These new medcinies ones for IVF, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, epiPens, medicine for circulation (Xarelto), psychiatric drugs and dermatology medicine. 

“We proved that we have a resilient healthcare system, which functioned well during the pandemic turmoil. We managed to safeguard the healthcare of all Maltese and Gozitans,” Fearne said. 

The majority of the funds will be allocated to the wages of the healthcare personnel, which will see an increase and double pay on Sundays for all, including contract workers.

When asked by MaltaToday about an exact timeline with regards to the distribution of the new free cancer medicines, Fearne said that  “the government had already introduced 15 types of cancer medicines".

He said that since cancer medicines are continuously developing, he could not provide an exact time frame of when the new ones will be introduced.

Next year will also see projects at the Medical Imaging Department, including a new CT scanner at St Vincent De Paul nursing home and a new MRI scanner for the Gozo General Hospital. The waiting area at the emergency department will be increasing in size, in a bid to reduce waiting time. 

Fearne also mentioned the building of a new six-storey outpatients block and a new 550 car parking facility within. He added that a new health regional centre will be built in the north of Malta and that the government aims to build a health centre in every locality in Malta and Gozo. 

Mount Carmel Hospital will be modernised, with the renovation of the first block and the building of a therapeutic garden instead of block 10. This will accompany the building a new psychiatric hospital next to Mater Dei hospital, which will be ready in about four years. 

What started as a pilot project for remote patient monitoring of patients under 16 years of age with type-1 diabetes, will become permanent and will be extened to all those under the age of 21 next year.