Health Minister Chris Fearne today insisted that PN Leader Simon Busuttil wanted to turn the clock back on the Gozitan health sector and go back to third world country standards.
Mr Fearne, who was addressing a press conference together with PL MP Franco Mercieca, was reacting to comments made by the PN Leader yesterday evening, when he said he would return the Gozo hospital to the public. The hospital has been taken over by Vitals Global Healthcare in a highly controversial deal but the government has promised that services for locals will remain free.
“We have ambitions to offer to Gozitans a health service that is even better than that offered at Mater Dei. Gozo will also become a centre of medical education and tourism,” Mr Fearne said.
The Health Minister said the PL administration had found a hospital that was worse than those of the third word. “We found rusty equipment, a kitchen of horrors and a boiler room that was ready to explode. Simon Busuttil wants to turn the clock back this situation.”
He explained how the new hospital will boast five operating theatres, a better hyperbaric unit, better accommodation and wards and modern equipment. There will also be a new pharmacy, ITU, CCU and imaging department (with a PET scanner) and an air ambulance.
“We are doing this, together with VGH, because we have a forward-looking vision,” adding that the private company’s medical tourism branch will also be of benefit to the economy. “It is estimated that medical tourists will leave an average of €10,000 each in the economy. Simon Busuttil wants to stop all this.”
Mr Fearne insisted that, despite this heavy investment, all services would remain free of charge, and workers will retain all conditions they currently enjoy, including the right to ask for a transfer.
On the other hand, Mr Fearne said, there are certain elements within the PN, including former minister Tonio Borg, who said the National Health Service cannot remain free. “We do not agree with this,” he said, insisting that Simon Busuttil wanted to destroy all the progress made in the health sector.
Franco Mercieca said the government had given workers a guarantee that all their working conditions will be retained.