The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, this morning opened the Gibraltar Cardiac Conference 2026 at the Sunborn, organised by the Gibraltar Cardiac Association.

The conference brings together healthcare professionals, patients and families, with a programme that follows the cardiac patient journey from the emergency, through treatment and recovery, to prevention.

In her opening address, the Minister thanked the Association’s Chairperson, Suyenne Catania, and the committee for organising the conference. She highlighted the importance of public confidence in CPR and defibrillator use, noting that, through partnership between Government and the Association, defibrillators have been placed across Gibraltar, including in schools, at the University and at Bleak House.

The Minister also set out the progress made in local cardiac care. On 3rd December 2024, the GHA carried out the first ever coronary angiogram in Gibraltar, and on 11th December 2024 the Keith Bautista Cath Lab was inaugurated. The Cath Lab has operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week since spring 2025. By summer 2026, more than 425 procedures had been carried out locally, including more than 90 emergency coronary interventions.

Minister Arias-Vasquez thanked the Association for its patience and goodwill during the temporary move of the Cardiac Gym to the John Mackintosh Hall and confirmed that the Gym is expected to return to the Hospital by the end of November.

The Minister used the conference to announce that the Government will shortly publish a Bill to create smoke-free generations in Gibraltar. The Bill will:

1. prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1st January 2009;

2. ban the sale and advertising of single-use vapes, regardless of age; and

3. prohibit the sale of nicotine products to anyone under the age of 18, with clear obligations on retailers to check age and display signage at the point of sale.

The Bill follows the public consultation on the Command Paper published by the Minister in 2025.

The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, said: “Cardiac care in Gibraltar has changed significantly in a very short time. Behind every procedure carried out in our Cath Lab is a person who was treated here, at home, by our own GHA teams, and a family who could stay close at one of the most frightening moments of their lives.

“Smoking remains one of the biggest avoidable causes of heart disease. The Bill we will shortly publish is one of the most forward-looking public health measures our community has ever seen, because protecting the hearts of the next generation starts long before anyone walks into A&E.

“I want to thank the Gibraltar Cardiac Association for organising this conference and for everything it does to raise Cardiac Awareness across Gibraltar."