(Adds government's reply)

The Opposition this morning called on the government to tackle the crisis situation at Mater Dei Hospital.

Addressing a news conference, shadow minister Claudette Buttigieg said that the reasons behind the crisis were that primary care was not being given any importance and the required decisions on long term care were not being taken.

She noted that while there was a crisis in hospital, the CEO was on holiday.

Referring to Mater Dei’s Hospital Activity Report for the first half of this year, she said the Prime Minister, the Health Minister and his parliamentary secretary were treating the document as something top secret, when such reports had always been published by the previous administration.

On Gozo, Ms Buttigieg said that Gozitans did not have a private health care option they could turn to and the situation at the state hospital was undignified for patients.

Rather than admitting to the problems so as to tackle them, she said, the government was intent on assassinating the character of those who uncovered the report.

In a reply, the government said the Nationalist Party knew that the shortage of beds at Mater Dei was due to its bad planning.

Since its first day, the government started working to solve the problems left behind by the previous administration.

It said that the first phase of the Medical Administration Unit, a new building adjacent to the Emergency Department, would be completed by the end of the year, This would initially have 68 new beds but would eventually take a total of 300 beds.