Labour must have “absolutely no shame” to try to take credit for the Mater Dei Hospital, a project that Labour was always against, wanted to demolish, said it was a luxury and, until last Sunday, Labour leader Alfred Sant was saying he wanted to stop, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

Replying to a statement issued by the MLP spokesman on health Noel Farrugia, the Health Ministry said that Labour did its best to put spokes in the project’s wheels and never accepted that a Nationalist government was giving a hospital of such a high quality to the Maltese people.

In 22 months in government, the MLP had done nothing on Mater Dei Hospital except waste time and decide to build an extra storey without considering whether the structure could support it. Mr Farrugia should say from where he would have brought over the staff for a bigger hospital.

Mr Farrugia said the Maltese people expected Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to apologise for the delay in the completion of the work. The ministry said that during the open weekend, the Maltese people had gone there not to ask the Prime Minister to apologise, but to thank him for the work done.

The government has for long been working to invest in human resources, first by eliminating the numerus clausus in the doctor of medicine course introduced by the Labour government. An institute of health care was set up and hundreds of nurses had graduated with certificates that are recognised abroad.

The MLP based its campaigns on mud-slinging and the Mater Dei Hospital was no exception, the ministry said. Mr Farrugia should ask the many Labour supporters who visited the hospital on Sunday for their verdict on the project, it added.