The Government is in denial over the crowding problems at Mater Dei Hospital and is doing very little to solve them, according to Labour health spokesperson Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

However, when asked how they proposed to solve these problems if elected, Dr Coleiro Preca said her party had “nothing concrete” yet, but plans were “at an advanced stage” and would be announced “at the opportune time”.

“It is still too early to give you concrete proposals but I can assure you the party will have a short-, medium- and long-term plan to deal with it. But as I told you these are still being formulated.”

She said the PL’s forthcoming congress would discuss these issues with the party’s grassroots.

Likewise, she said Labour had no position on the call by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses for a second hospital to take pressure off Mater Dei.

Dr Coleiro-Preca said a Labour government would place absolute priority on primary healthcare which this government had discarded. If a good healthcare plan was in place and regional health centres worked well there would not be such problems, she said.

Many promised reforms had been made over the years, such as those related to primary healthcare, general practice and mental healthcare, but nothing had materialised.

The system of family doctors was not being used to its full potential and when doctors diagnosed a patient for, say, diabetes, the patient still had to see a consultant at Mater Dei to be entitled to free medicines. This system was creating bottlenecks and delays.

The lack of planning was also evidenced in the care of the elderly. Malta was supposed to have a rehabilitation hospital for the elderly but Karin Grech Hospital, earmarked for that purpose, was now being used for all patients.

The Government hit back saying Labour was offering nothing concrete and was only good at criticising. It said the Opposition could not fathom how the World Health Organisation could refer to Malta’s healthcare system as a role model.