Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday put paid to claims by the Malta Labour Party in relation to fees for health care by saying: “Look, the fact of the matter is that Alfred Sant imposed charges, while Lawrence Gonzi did not”.

Dr Gonzi was speaking during a live televised press conference outside the Mater Dei Hospital. The Prime Minister said it was true that a report had been commissioned to see how money could be saved. “When I took over the Prime Minister’s post four years ago, our main aim was to put finances on a sound footing. I commissioned many reports and we were given many suggestions,” he said.

Dr Gonzi continued: “Some people told me to reduce stipends, others told me to put charges on health care, but we opted for none of those. What we did opt for was pushing VAT up, building a brand new hospital and increasing stipends in areas that needed growth.”

Dr Gonzi said the issue was brought up during a cabinet committee chaired by Minister Louis Galea; however, it was turned down flat. “Even the author of the report has sworn to this, so why does Dr Sant keep trying to lie about the matter?” he said.

The Prime Minister said the PN believed in the concept of the healthy paying their taxes to help those who fell ill. “We want sick people to concentrate on getting better, not on how they are going to pay their medical bill,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said that during his brief stint in office, Alfred Sant imposed a Lm0.50 charge on prescriptions and taxed medicines. He also, said Dr Gonzi, had commissioned a report which was to be implemented whereby social cases would have to pay for lodgings at Zammit Clapp while residents would have to pay for transport, food and services.

Dr Gonzi said he had to quote former Prime Minister, MLP leader and backbencher Dom Mintoff. “He had told Dr Sant that he had lost his social awareness direction finder and I will say the same thing,” said Dr Gonzi.

He said the MLP had introduced taxes on medicines and the PN promptly removed them. “And I also want to ask Dr Sant why he is persisting with his lies and trying to pin onto me something which he himself did. Can’t he just be a man and admit that he made a mistake?” asked the PM.

He also said that after Dr Sant had said that a budget surplus by 2010 was not a priority for the MLP, opposition deputy leader Charles Mangion said that an MLP government would deal with the problems arising by reducing government spending on health, housing, the elderly and the infrastructure.

He said that before being elected to power, Dr Sant promised to keep stipends, yet he removed them. “So who is it who cannot be trusted then?” asked Dr Gonzi. He also condemned the MLP’s electoral campaign tactics, saying: “I condemn their use of lies. It’s not healthy and it’s an insult to people’s intelligence,” said Dr Gonzi.

He also said that Dr Sant had lied about the comments of UK’s Lord Adonis in relation to the reception class and he should stop trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. He referred to the MLP’s campaign as being a comedy of errors and that not even one concrete proposal had been put forward.

Dr Gonzi said the PN’s track record in the health sector spoke for itself. “The World Health Organisation has placed us in fifth place for the level of healthcare in this country. Wasn’t it Dr Sant himself who said that Mater Dei was a state of the art hospital?” he asked.

He said that Mater Dei staff were performing 100 operations a day, 8,000 more per year than used to be performed 10 years ago under an MLP government. In addition, he said, the number of medical staff employed by the government had doubled since the last Labour days.

“We are also encouraging more nurses to enrol by offering them guaranteed employment as well as boosting their stipends. By 2015, we want a better and more efficient service. But not only at Mater Dei, we want high levels of service at Mount Carmel, Zammit Clapp and all other facilities,” he said.

He said that the government wanted to cut down waiting lists through changes to be implemented as a result of the last collective agreement signed with medical staff. “We will also do this through good management. We will set maximum waiting periods for individual clients and we will not exceed them,” he said.

The government will extend the breast screening programme and will also set up a brand new cutting edge cancer treatment facility at Zammit Clapp while extending the rehabilitation facility at St Vincent de Paul to 280 beds.

There will also be more free medicines for more people, said Dr Gonzi, adding that big campaigns were also in the pipeline to discourage people from smoking, leading an unhealthy lifestyle and consuming excess alcohol. To complement these campaigns, others would be launched to tackle the obesity problem, the incidence of diabetes and heart disease.

“We also want to provide more support for the elderly in allowing them to continue to live in their own homes,” he said. During question time, Dr Gonzi said he believed that the PN had succeeded in making healthcare sustainable. “The deficit is down, we have reformed the pension service and built a new hospital. And, healthcare is still free,” he said.

Answering a question by the Malta Independent, Dr Gonzi said that the government was intent on offering all the support necessary for general practitioners to offer the sterling service that is pretty much unique in this world. “There are not many, if any, places in the world where GPs come to treat you at home, day and night. We will introduce e-ID which carries your health records. In that way, GPs can access your medical history from their desktop and they can also link up to Mater Dei through the computer network to seek opinions from consultants and specialists,” said the PM.

“As long as I am Prime Minister of Malta, there will be no fees for healthcare,” concluded Dr Gonzi.