Brincat urges government to reconsider chemotherapy in Gozo

The former chief of the oncology department at Mater Dei Hospital Stephen Brincat has kept up his opposition to the introduction of chemotherapy services in Gozo.

Brincat, who resigned earlier this week, has insisted that medical staff at the Gozo General Hospital were not trained enough and lacked the sufficient experience to provide this service.

"There are no oncology specialists in Gozo and those in Malta total three," Brincat told MaltaToday.

In a letter appearing in the Sunday Times, Brincat said that cancer patients treated at the Gozo hospital have died from chemotherapy toxicity because treatment was carried out "without necessary expertise".

However responding to questions by MaltaToday, Brincat expressed reassurances that this was not current the case.

"Chemotherapy services were provided at the Gozo hospital in the past, at patients' insistence and against all medical advice," he said, adding that this sometimes resulted in deaths.

He said the 'intent' behind his letter was to raise awareness that government's plans to introduce chemotherapy in a rushed and haphazard manner would most likely lead to a situation where this could happen.

Brincat insisted that the Gozo hospital didn't have trained doctors and nurses capable of handling such treatments, and recalled his warnings that due to a lack of resources there are only three specialists oncologists.

Brincat said he had proposed a plan to the Health Department on how to introduce chemotherapy in Gozo which would have taken four to six months to implement properly. "But the Health Department wanted it done in one month," Brincat said.

He reiterated that government that it should not pursue a course of action which would mean that chemotherapy treatment would be administered by medical professionals who do not possess the specialist training to do so. Brincat emphasised that it was precisely this scenario that he was attempting to avert.

 "People can die from certain treatment even in the best circumstances. However lack of training could increase that risk. That is why there are specialists," he reiterated.

"If, for example, you had to do a tonsillectomy, which is a simply procedure, there may be a risk of severe haemorrhage and even death. If done by a specialist, the chance of that happening may be one in a thousand. If done by a GP, it may happen once every ten times."

He said that therein lies the difference of the lack of specialist training. "We have a specialist register for that very reason: to ensure that specialist treatment is handled by those who possess specialist training."