MALTA: Maltese patients given choice of treatment in UK or Italy

Malta’s main international links are with the UK, due to history and tourism, and Italy, its main trading partner in Europe. Maltese patients who cannot get treatment at home now have a choice of government paid treatment in the UK or Italy.

The UK link is a long standing one and now the Ministry for Health has entered into an agreement with Air Malta to extend the national highly specialized referral programme to provide cost reduced flight tickets to persons who require medical assistance abroad. Air Malta will reduce airfares for those requiring medical treatment in the UK, and waive most of the ticketing conditions usually applicable for public travel, giving patients and the government flexibility in booking air tickets.

In 2009, there were 477 cases who required assisted travelling, 174 of whom were aged under 18 years. The government pays for all children under 18 years who require treatment in the UK and for one accompanying adult. In 2009 Air Malta carried four incubator cases, 26 stretcher cases and 81 oxygen cases. The new agreement supersedes another concluded 30 years ago.

The government has a new similar agreement with Italy from 2010, enabling Maltese patients to receive treatment in Italy, if this is not available in Malta. Patients can now go to Italy for emergency and high-intensive care, neoplastic and cardiovascular disease, organ donation and transplantation. In these and other sectors of healthcare, Italy boasts reputable institutes in health and advanced research.

The signing of the Italo-Maltese agreement has now given patients a choice between going to the UK or to Italy. The agreement will also create links between experts and facilities in both countries for the provision of medical care to their populations. This agreement includes other areas of cooperation; exchange of research material and epidemiological information, exchange of information on assessments of new medicines and emerging health technologies and policies on their use in the health sector, collaboration between professional organisations and non-governmental health sector organisations and the development of mechanisms to combat emerging health threats and communicable diseases with a focus in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The new arrangement is for a period of four years and can be renewed for further periods of time. Italy is by far Malta’s biggest trading partner and has not only maintained the numbers of Italian tourists visiting it but has actually increased them well as the number of air/sea routes operating between our two countries.