Opposition spokesperson on health Marie Louise Coleiro Preca urged the Government to stop the process of acquiring St Philip’s Hospital by title of lease and to discuss available options before Parliament so that people would be informed and geriatric professionals properly consulted.
Government is duty-bound to explain what apparatus was present
Minister Cassar had claimed that Labour did not really have the interest of patients at heart.
She retorted that it was those who kept patients waiting for 12 hours in the emergency department, those who kept patients waiting on stretchers in the corridors of a state-of-the-art hospital, those who left people waiting a year to undergo an MRI scan and those who left the Gozo hospital in a shameful state that did not have the interest of the patients at heart.
How much did the Government pay Skanska for the construction of a rehabilitation centre at Mater Dei, which was never built?
The Government was not doing anything about the situation at Karin Grech Hospital. Certain people did not want to undergo rehabilitation there as the conditions were not adequate.
Ms Coleiro Preca asked the minister to clarify whether St Philip’s Hospital would offer all rehabilitation services. What staff compliment was required at St Philip’s? Now that a number of young people had graduated, would the Government employ them?
The Government was duty-bound to explain what apparatus was present at St Philip’s Hospital so that one would know what the €12 million consisted of. There should also be a breakdown of the expenses involved.
Would the hospital become public property after the lease agreement?
When the PL was elected to Government in 1996, it went for a hospital (Mater Dei) that would have a capacity of 800-1,000 beds. However, when the PN was re-elected in 1998, it opted for a hospital with less beds.
Concluding, Ms Coleiro Preca said that had the Government been serious in the health sector, it would have worked on it 25 years ago and not now just because the election was approaching.