The Nationalist Party this morning expressed concern at John Dalli’s report on the situation at Mater Dei, which spokesman Claudio Grech said was creating instability in the health sector.

Addressing a news conference at the PN’s headquarters in Pieta, Mr Grech said the report was inviting confrontation when consensus was what was needed.

Such confrontation, he said, was created by the government and Mr Dalli, a former health minister and the government’s consultant.

The PN, Mr Grech said, wanted to continue building on the positive.

He noted that the government received the report, which it published on Saturday, on October 31.

Mr Grech said that now that the nurses union, MUMN, had given its reaction, the PN was also giving its own and it expected the government to do the same, rather than distance itself from its own report.

The PN, Mr Grech said, still insisted on the need for consensus in the sector and on the need for a select parliamentary committee on health. The need for this committee had now become more urgent, he said.

He added that Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia was a good person with whom the Nationalist Party felt it could build good working methods.

The report, however, hindered this consensual direction. “It's divisive and this is unfortunate,” Mr Grech said.

It was also creating a problem of governance with a government consultant taking a different position than that being taken by the government he represented.

Mr Grech said that the report had failed to take an X-Ray of the health system, it took only partial shots, highlighting only what was negative.

It did not even acknowledge that people were generally satisfied with the service.

Mr Grech noted that 45,000 operations were undertaken at Mater Dei last year as well as more than six million blood tests.

“This shows that the hospital is giving a good service… There are things that need to be improved upon but this is always the case,” he said.

He said that although change was important it had to be gradual.

Comments such as the hospital was in a "state of anarchy" were just blanket statements and discouraged people.

Although the Nationalist government could have done much more in primary healthcare, it did a lot and concentrated more efforts on Meater Dei.

Mr Grech noted that the report did not mention waiting lists and bed shortages, which were the real problems which Mr Dalli completely ignored.

“No solution is given on these perennial problems,” he said.

The PN's position can be read in the pdf link below.