More than 1,000 students have already applied to enrol within the medical campus planned for Gozo, Health Minister Chris Fearne said this morning.

The call for application was launched three weeks ago and will close in March, with the aim of enrolling around 60 students in the medical school that is to be run by Barts, a faculty within Queen Mary University of London. However, 1,090 prospective students had already applied, he said.

Addressing the Labour Party's weekly political activity, Dr Fearne insisted that had the government not taken tough decisions, the health sector would today still be burdened with long waiting lists, out of stock medicine and long queues at the emergency department.

The previous administration had been scared to take such decisions and Gozo General Hospital had been left in a derelict state for a number of years.

The service previously provided at the hospital was “third class”, but the Labour government had turned this challenge into an opportunity and would soon have a hospital that was sought after by foreigners and students, he said. 

Speaking at the same activity in Xagħra, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat noted that the Gozo Hospital had been more of a “glorified polyclinic”, and before Labour was elected to government, Gozitans would have had to seek emergency medical treatment in Malta.

PL was turning the hospital into one that would be after sought by the Maltese and foreigners, he reiterated.

The government’s health sector successes in Gozo were not a standalone issue, he argued. The government’s decisions concerning the energy sector also meant that despite an increase in the price of fuel this week, utility bills were not going to increase.

“Had we kept the system that the previous administration wanted, today I would be telling you that we will be increasing the utility bills in January,” Dr Muscat said.

The Labour leader said he was glad that the government’s politics were already bearing results, as he had initially been concerned that people would only understand the relevance of the government’s decisions in the coming years.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.