The Labour Party agreed with the planned services standards at Mater Dei Hospital, MLP health spokesman Karl Chircop said. The government’s statement was positive and augured well in the easing of the problems the public encountered when resorting to health services, he said in a statement.

But then the public was not well served by the department of primary health care, where deficiencies were often the result of staff shortages and resources mismanagement.

One of the biggest problems the department faced was the lack of investment over recent years. What had happened in Malta contrasted with developments abroad, where the emphasis in expenditure lay in the primary health care sector. Malta was doing the opposite, with many health centres having been closed over eight years ago. The sector seemed to have been given up, with expenditure on modernisation and equipment going down from e256,000 eights years ago to e37,000.

Dr Chircop said the Labour Party agreed with the Services Standards idea, but problems had been allowed to develop and no serious planning had been made beforehand.

The standards now needed to be implemented as soon as possible.