Spend more on primary healthcare, NAO urges government

Primary healthcare funding remains below required levels with a lack of funds making it hard to implement national health strategies, a National Audit Office report has found.  The NAO report found that many existing practices, most notably the way in which GPs were deployed to health centres, were not cost-efficient and that management information limitations hindered the Primary Health Care Department's planning and monitoring functions.  Throughout 2014, approximately one in every four patients treated at Mater Dei's A&E department could have been dealt with by health centres.  The report also noted that GP consultations at public health centres cost the government more than the fees charged for private GP consultations - while public consultations cost public coffers an average of €10.99 per visit in the two-week period measured in 2014, private consultations cost an average of €9.37.  Malta spent an estimated €10.3 million to provide GP services at nine health centres in 2014.  There was also a significant imbalance in the average costs across health centres, the report found: the average unit cost at Floriana health centre, for instance, was 54 per cent higher than that at...

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