Supposedly ‘world-class’ health sector development has amounted to nothing, PN says
What was meant to be a “worldclass” development in the health sector has amounted to nothing, the Nationalist Party said in a press conference on Friday.
Speaking outside of St Luke’s Hospital, Nationalist Party MP Adrian Delia said that the hospital was meant to be part of what was promised to be the biggest development in regard to health in our country, which was meant to push it to a “world-class” level.
He remarked that after the country was robbed of €400 million, absolutely nothing was done.
Delia said that anyone with a head on their shoulders capable of seeing around them would see buildings and structures in states of total abandonment, where the investment which was supposed to happen had never occurred.
“Those who were supposed to make the investment, never did so, neither in his hospital nor in the Gozo General Hospital which was supposed to be built anew, nor in the rehabilitation of the Karin Grech Hospital, instead chose to defraud the Maltese and Gozitan population.”
He referred to the court’s judgement on the deal, and said that from the very beginning there was never any intention for these investments to be carried out, but rather there was always the intention to carry out this fraud. “This fraud was not just done by foreign companies who came here to steal from us, but it was also done through the complicity of the highest exponents within the government”, the MP remarked.
Delia continued that following all this, “after everyone has been able to see the greatest fraud to ever take place”, and after the magisterial inquiry into the Vitals deal has finished, we have a Government and a Prime Minister, as well as ex-Prime Minister, who are defending what happened and defending those who were involved in the situation.
The MP took aim at the Labour Party’s campaign slogan for the election, ‘ Is-Saħħa Lill-Maltin’ (Health to the Maltese), and asked if the Government intends to distribute this health from the hospital behind him, or the Gozo General Hospital in their current state. “Is that the health that they want to give to the Maltese and Gozitans?”, he questioned.
He said that on the other hand, the PN are working for the people, as they returned the hospitals to the people and are insisting that the €400 million are returned to the people, as well as seeing to it that justice is delivered to those who abused their power.
PN MP Ian Vassallo said that unfortunately, nothing which was expected to develop within the health sector has actually happened, and that instead of having somewhere to work from and be able to assist people, healthcare workers instead have an empty hospital with patients being strewn around different areas of Mater Dei not suited for housing them.
“Mater Dei is not keeping up with the demand”, he said, “today there are patients who have been waiting there for eight, ten, twelve hours”.
Vassallo said that with the increasing population, making use of other hospitals would have helped alleviate the situation, but he remarked that the Government had instead forgot the people. He also made mention of unfulfilled plans for a mother-and-baby hospital as well as plans for a mental hospital, which has now been shifted to being a mental ward. Additionally, he spoke of the plans regarding an additional outpatient block to Mater Dei, plans which have not come to fruition.
He also spoke of the long waiting times for patients awaiting medical appointments and tests, which he said further turn into additional waiting times, and may result in a situation where it is inevitably too late for the planned treatment to have the intended effect.
For his part, Vassallo concluded that the Government has cast the people away from the care that they have a right to, and that the PN will continue to fight for better health care.
MEP Candidate, Norma Camilleri, said that the health sector is a varied one which presents a number of challenges and impacts various other sectors. She said that the health sector is one which should be given continuous great importance.
Camilleri spoke of some difficulties currently present within the health sector, such as operations being cancelled day-to-day due to a lack of space within operating theatres, as well as a lack of human resources. She said that with the increasing population, the situation at Mater Dei is one of overcrowding and prolonging of waiting times. Additionally, she spoke of cost-cuts and of equipment which is becoming damaged and outdated.
She said that during Covid, areas within Mater Dei were repurposed to function as wards, such as the staff library and canteen, but with the pandemic having passed, she said that the staff still has not been able to make use of these areas again. “Are these the resources we are offering to our professionals?”, she asked.
The MEP candidate concluded by saying that the current Government has been in power for eleven years, and that this has surely been enough time for a plan to be made and put into action.
Following the conference, the PN speakers took questions from the media, one of which was posed by a ONE journalist who directed a question to Camilleri in which he asked if she could explain whether the PN had an establishment within it.
Camilleri replied by saying that the PN has clarified on several occasions that the establishment is the Government.
Delia commented that the word establishment implicates those who are in power and the abuse of power, and that in the country there is currently a “Prime Minister who has abducted the Public Broadcasting, abducted the Commissioner of Police, abducted the State Advocate and prevented them from doing their work, is attacking the judiciary, and is doing everything he can to prevent the rule of law”.