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During a meeting of the\u00a0Parliamentary\u00a0Social Affairs Committee\u00a0held on Monday, 12th<\/span>\u00a0November, there was a discussion on the need to introduce immunity or protection from any consequence following the provision of First Aid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0Social Affairs Committee\u00a0discussed the White Paper on the Good Samaritan, a document that was\u00a0drawn up by the Opposition to protect those who help others in case of an accident from civil or criminal prosecution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The main objective of the legislation is to remove any possible deterrent\u00a0that could hinder a person from helping others when there is imminent or\u00a0present\u00a0danger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During a presentation that Nationalist MP Claudio\u00a0Grech\u00a0made to the Committee and trade union representatives\u00a0he explained that the concept of the Good Samaritan is based on three main points. First, the obligation of care or rescue where it is a criminal offence for a person who fails to help another person in need of rescue; second, protection for whoever helps out in the rescue from civil damages and criminal responsibility for any consequences arising from the rescue, and; third, compensation for any damages suffered by anyone who has helped save anyone in need.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0U\u0126M\u00a0Voice of the Workers\u00a0attended this meeting and was represented by\u00a0Mario Sacco,\u00a0Employment Relations Senior Manager\u00a0and\u00a0Isabelle Farrugia,\u00a0Employment Relations Manager.\u00a0Mario Sacco agrees with this White Paper and said that help should be given whenever possible. However, he called for better clarification of what constitutes gross negligence. He also added that there needs to be better awareness about and a clarification of\u00a0what\u00a0 constitutes\u00a0imminent and present danger to a person\u2019s life. On her part, Isabelle\u00a0Farrugia\u00a0called for more training on and awareness of First Aid and suggested that First Aid and\u00a0firefighting\u00a0should form part of schoolchildren\u2019s education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0Nationalist MP, who is the brains behind this White Paper, spoke about the situation in Malta and said that there is no\u00a0duty\u00a0of care\u00a0to\u00a0assist in the rescue of a person.\u00a0The\u00a0lack of protection for those involved in a rescue, even for those who are trained and qualified in\u00a0providing\u00a0First Aid, can act as a deterrent to rescuing a person. This is why there are such big advantages tied to the introduction of the proposed legislation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During the meeting it was\u00a0revealed that insurance for health professionals covers them only when they are at the workplace. There is no insurance policy that covers other public officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Nationalist MP\u00a0referred to the members of disciplined forces and asked how many of them are trained in First Aid. He said that members\u00a0of the Police force are given training during their recruitment period as well as throughout their service with the Police Corp. Members of the Civil Protection Department follow a number training programmes and are certified. In the Armed Forces of Malta there are 737 members out of 1,700 who are certified while there are 116 officials out of 270 at the Corrective Facility in\u00a0Kordin\u00a0who are qualified. The statistics show that there are 100 more certified first-aiders who work with the\u00a0Gozo\u00a0Channel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Nationalist MP\u00a0added that defibrillators are available at the\u00a0 majority of the schools and a limited number are found at Police Stations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During a meeting of the\u00a0Parliamentary\u00a0Social Affairs Committee\u00a0held on Monday, 12th\u00a0November, there was a discussion on the need to introduce immunity or protection from any consequence following the provision of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2055,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[86],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2054"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2054\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}