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Updated 10.10am
Public services should “by definition” not be predicated on turning a profit, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said today.
Answering questions about the PN’s proposal to return the privatised Gozo general hospital to the public sector, Dr Busuttil said talk of the hospital’s viability was misguided.
“When Joseph Muscat says the Gozo hospital cannot be viable, he is revealing his political thinking. By definition, public services should not have profit as their aim.”
With Mater Dei hospital serving as his backdrop, Dr Busuttil said the PN would never sell off Malta's main public hospital.
“After his talk about Gozo hospital, Muscat can never say this. And if he does, he cannot be believed,” Dr Busuttil said.
“I'm all for private sector involvement in healthcare, but public hospitals should in principle never be privatised.”
He said the PN was not seeking to seize back Karin Grech or St Luke's hospitals, which were also privatised as part of the government's deal with Vitals Global Healthcare.
Healthcare proposals
The PN leader used the morning press conference to unveil some of his party’s healthcare sector proposals.
Among them are promises to grant free prescription medicines to those living with chronic conditions such as diabetes and osteoporosis, as well as free prescription medicines for all those getting by on just their pension.
Dr Busuttil also pledged to put an end to cancer patients “begging” to the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation for chemotherapy, saying this treatment was their right and would be given for free. A voucher service for coeliac sufferers would be tripled from €50 to €150, with the possibility of extending the system to other chronic conditions.
The PN leader did not provide cost estimates for his healthcare pledges, saying that there should “never, never, never” be any cap on medical spending.
“If needs be, we should halt roadworks to save someone’s life.” he said. “If you’ve got cancer, your focus should be on that, not on scraping together the money for treatment.”
Coalition
Dr Busuttil said the PN and Marlene Farrugia’s Democratic Party would be unveiling a joint manifesto later this week, and assured journalists that he and Dr Farrugia did not allow any political differences to develop into rifts.
“We are a coalition before the election, and we will be a coalition after it too,” he said.