The Nationalist Party said in a statement this afternoon that the government is continuing to deny patients health services by terminating the chemotherapy treatment at Gozo General Hospital.

Quoting a Sunday Times report, the PN said that a Health Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying that the project related to the chemotherapy treatment service at Gozo’s hospital could be stopped.

The PN said that the government was pinning it on the lack of funds available and on the small number of cancer patients, a total of 11, that require the service on a weekly basis.

During the past legislature, the PN said that a number of nurses and paramedics, some of whom were specially trained at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, were already transferred from Malta to Gozo.

It added that construction works had started and tenders issued in order to equip the Chemotherapy Unit with special apparatus with the aim of kick-starting the service.

Ironically, the PN said that one of the Labour Party’s electoral pledges, as stated in its electoral manifesto, is to invest in the chemotherapy service in Gozo, which will be provided to Gozitan patients, along with other professional services.

The PN quotes a number of statements made by Labour MPs prior to the election and after.

·          Soon after the general election, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia was quoted as saying, during a visit to the Gozo General Hospital, that the government’s first priority is to provide a chemotherapy service for all Gozitans that have been diagnosed with cancer.

·         On 21 September, 2011, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca called a press conference outside the Gozo Hospital where she stated it was unacceptable that Gozitan patients were being treated as third class citizens.

·         On 20 May, Anton Refalo said that “we are still far from what we would like to see in Gozo ...during this administration Gozo will be starting new services, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy”.

·         Justyne Caruana, in an article that appeared in the GWU newspaper l-Orizzont on 9 February, this year, said: “A new Labour government would continue to strengthen the health services in Gozo, as Labour always maintained.”

The PN said that the above-mentioned examples show that the present government’s mask of hypocrisy is being uncovered, since while serving from the Opposition benches, spoke differently to how it’s speaking today when in government.