A 1998 manpower plan for the hospital’s ophthalmology department earmarked the need for 19 doctors to satisfy the increasing demand for cataract operations, but this plan will only be fully implemented this year when the number of doctors appointed will sastify the requirements of the plan.
Yesterday the burgeoning demand for cataract operations and the long waiting list at Mater Dei was given a human face by a 70-year-old woman who told MaltaToday she waited four months for an operation to be fixed, only to be told she was facing a four-year queue.
Only last year, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi specifically stated that cataract waiting lists would be cut down within three years at Mater Dei – although ostensibly the four-year waiting list is still a reality.
The woman said she visited the hospital in February and was told she would be informed of an appointment for her cataract operation within four months.
After not receiving any news from the hospital, last week she called Mater Dei to enquire about the operation. She was asked to present herself personally at the hospital, since the information could not be communicated to her by phone.
The next day, she was told she faced a four-year wait for her operation due to the long waiting list.

Although her case was listed as “not urgent”, she said she couldn’t bear to wait months before her eye worsens, and is now contemplating private surgery.
News of the four-year waiting list makes for a glaring contrast with Gonzi’s claim in last year’s Budget speech, that waiting lists for cataract operations would be cut down “in the shortest time possible”.
“In Mater Dei we not only have twice the number of operating theatres, but the most important of dedicated theatres. This means we will be able to cut down waiting lists such as those for cataract operations in the shortest time posible. We will be able to double the number of cataract operations every year, even through operations carried out in the afternoon. That is why waiting lists for cataract operations will be elimited within three years,” Gonzi claimed last October.
The situation concerning Mater Dei’s ophthalmology department was yesterday brought up in parliament, when Labour MP Leo Brincat asked health minister John Dalli on his views over comments by the chairman of the ophthalmology department, Thomas Fenech.

On 15 June, Fenech wrote in The Times saying the “tremendous increase in volume” of operations for cataract operations had not been accompanied by an increase in manpower in the department.
“The manpower plan recommended in 1998 to deal with what was clearly foreseen as an increasing trend in the demand for this procedure, has to this day not yet been implemented and today we have the same man power but more than double the patients,” Fenech wrote.
Mater Dei carries out over 1,400 cataract extractions every year, while the ophthalmology department also takes care of other patients needing squint surgery, glaucoma operations, corneal transplantation, and numerous minor eyelid operative procedures.
“And this is where the problem lies,” Fenech wrote. “More patients, more procedures, more interventions, more successes and the same number of doctors and the same theatre time.”
In his reply, Dalli said that since the drafting of the manpower plan for the ophthalmology department in 1998, a number of appointments had been made for consultants, resident specialists, higher specialist trainees (HST) and basic specialist trainees (BST).
He said there had also been a number of resignations during this ten-year period. According to the manpower plan, the department had to be staffed by 16 doctors at all grades, while at present there were 11.
However six doctors were at present studying abroad, and upon their return there would be enough doctors to satisfy the requirements of the manpower plan.
With another three housemen expected to be assigned next week for 7 July, Dalli said applications were also being processed for new BSTs, and calls for applications for HSTs and resident specialists.
Dalli said the ministry will be treating the problem of waiting lists in a holistic plan the government is working on.

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Ophthalmology Department

Grade            Manpower plan (1998)            In post
Chairperson              1                                             1
Consultant                4                                             3
Resident specialist  4                                             2
HST/BST                  8                                             5 (+6)*
Houseman                2                                             3**

* 6 doctors are studying abroad
** 3 doctors to be assigned to the department on 7 July

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mvella@mediatoday.com.mt