A booklet displayed prominently at the health centre in Victoria promises that “you can expect to be seen by a doctor in 30 minutes”. But on most mornings you would be lucky if you’re seen within two hours.
By mid-morning a build-up of patients fill the flimsy plastic chairs and straggles of people are forced to stand and sometimes spill outside the door of Gozo’s only health centre.
Opened in 1991, the centre has become too small for the volume of patients which, according to patients and staff, has been rising in recent years.
On busy mornings, clinical staff can barely cope in the small, cramped interior. Parents with children visiting for routine vaccinations – the immunisation clinic doubles as the office of the head nurse due to shortage of room space – sit next to patients waiting to see the GP.
“Some of those patients might have infectious diseases, such as the flu in winter,” a member of the staff said on condition of anonymity, “which they could potentially pass to infants.”
Space is so limited that two or three members of the staff sit in the small, boxy reception when not busy attending to patients. The reception, an aluminum construction, lends the interior a shoddy…
