If anyone harboured even the slightest hope that the Nationalist Party under Adrian Delia would indeed offer a ‘new way’, very different to that offered under Simon Busuttil, the latest PN stand on the Vitals Global Healthcare - Steward Health Care deal must have convinced them that such a hope was just an illusion.

The PN’s harsh criticism of the deal was that Vitals had no real experience. Of course, they had to include the word “corruption”, which had become a standard term to be used in each and every big investment attracted to our country.

However, since the new company taking over the contract from Vitals cannot be attacked about any lack of experience , since it is the biggest healthcare provider in the United States, running about 36 hospitals and employing about 37,000 professionals, the PN is again targeting the original deal with Vitals, forgetting that a copy of the original contract had been passed by the government to the Auditor General over two years ago for his scrutiny.

The only word of supposed criticism by the PN’s spokesman for health, Stephen Spiteri, was that Steward Health Care was “American”, forgetting that GonziPN, of which he formed part, had tried to attract an American company to take over the running of Mater Dei Hospital. If the PN had their way and the original contract is terminated and St Luke’s – in its abandoned state – Karin Grech and the Gozo hospitals are returned to the government, the big leap forward in hospital care in our country would be lost, probably for ever.

The PN’s policy remains what it was prior to when Delia and his two deputy leaders took over from their predecessors: oppose all big investments in order to try and stop the enormous progress our country is registering in so many sectors, including healthcare and education. They hope this is the only way the Labour government can be removed from power.

Some hope Delia!