Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning that the government remained committed to ensuring that it had the funds so that health services remained free of charge.
He was reacting in a Radio 101 interview to comments made in The Sunday Times by the CEO of Mater Dei Hospital.
The CEO, Joseph Caruana, said free health care, from a business point of view, could not be sustained for much longer and the sooner the issue was addressed, the better.
Dr Gonzi said the government did not view the provision of medical services as a business, and it would therefore continue to ensure that the funds were available for the free medical service. He would personally work to ensure there was free health service right to the end of his energy, Dr Gonzi said.
Replying to questions, on the Cyrus Engerer case, Dr Gonzi said Opposition leader Joseph Muscat was not distinguishing between right and wrong and was bent only on winning votes.
It was disgraceful, he said, that Dr Muscat and some journalists, were dragging the country down to the dumps. A very serious allegation had been made that the government had interfered in the investigations against Chris Engerer, Cyrus's father. What Mr Galea Curmi (his chief of staff) had done was only to phone the Commissioner, in Cyrus's presence, to get an assurance that no such interference had been made.
That Dr Muscat could not see what was right and wrong in this issue was worrying. Should Dr Muscat be prime minister and somebody alleged that there was political interference in the police force, would he ignore it?
The PL, he said, had become a refuge for people who disagreed with the PN, and others who, for example, expected to be granted a contract but didn't.
Dr Gonzi said this was not the first time that Dr Muscat was not distinguishing between right and wrong. One only needed to recall, for example, how some weeks ago in another effort at winning the people's support, Dr Muscat had criticised the Maltese armed forces for rescuing migrants close to Lampedusa, even though they were in distress and such action, therefore, needed to be taken.
In another part of the interview, Dr Gonzi highlighted the fact that the government had decided to raise the assistance it gives Church schools - which have 18,000 pupils. The government was investing €42 million in this sector and it was money well spent, in the same way as it was well spent in new school building, health services and the environment, Dr Gonzi said.