Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has rebutted the Opposition’s claims that the government is making spending cuts in the health sector.

We are ready to make sacrifices to offer our resources to the health sector

“This is a blatant lie. We are increasing our expenditure over last year’s. We are just being more cautious about by how much to increase this spending,” he said.

During a pre-recorded interview aired on the party station Radio 101 yesterday, Dr Gonzi said the country had become accustomed to Labour’s “twisting of facts”.

Contrary to their claims, the government had not cut spending and was spending €1 million per day on health, which was more than what was spent last year. Meanwhile, more daily operations will take place.

However, Dr Gonzi admitted, the government has had to be more prudent than it had initially forecast at the last Budget.

“The only difference is that we wanted to spend even more and to provide more services but we are being careful to keep public spending sustainable and spend only what we can afford.”

Labour last week pointed out that the government will reduce €1.2 million from its planned spending on Mt Carmel Hospital, €500,000 from Karin Grech Hospital, €356,000 from health screening programmes and €300,000 from primary healthcare.

There will also be a €200,000 cut on the national cancer plan, a €60,000 cut on the obesity strategy, €100,000 from postgraduate training, €20,000 from the budget for the Congress of Nurses and €75,000 from the blood transfusion service.

In an hour-long interview focused on healthcare, Dr Gonzi made no reference to the recent damning claims of former Health Minister Louis Deguara regarding an agreement with doctors that gave them the option of keeping their private practice and work half-days. Dr Deguara said recently that the 2007 doctors’ accord with the government was signed due to “orders from above”, despite serious misgivings from the Health Division. He was reacting to Health Minister Joe Cassar saying that the agreement was flawed. Labour yesterday called for someone to take political responsibility for the collective agreement which had also been criticised by former health minister John Dalli.

“The Prime Minister must respond,” the party said, adding that silence was no option. But yesterday Dr Gonzi spoke generically about healthcare, saying it was the government’s priority because it impacted everyone from babies in their mother’s womb to the elderly.

“We are ready to make sacrifices to offer our resources to the health sector,” he said.

In his first legislature he had promised to deliver the state-of-the-art Mater Dei Hospital. Now, his target was to focus on the cancer hospital being built in an adjacent site, which will see cancer patients moved from the dilapidated Boffa Hospital.

Dr Gonzi listed the services given for free by the government including free medication, the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme, and an array of operations and other treatments. He stressed that healthcare was not free but paid for by the taxpayers through their national insurance contributions and tax.