These past days we have seen a daily, repetitive attack on Mater Dei Hospital and Health Minister Joe Cassar

I find it horribly wrong that patients, and their situation and problems, have to be used by the new Labour Party spokesperson on health, who seems to have become an expert on anything that is connected with health, only to expose them to the public for her propaganda.

Where were they in the past when Maltese doctors were locked out of hospital and forced to go abroad? Where were they when going to St Luke’s Hospital was a nightmare in itself? Where were they when hospitals lacked basic services and, when, you get the service, it’s in a language that you cannot understand?

They have embarked on a campaign to complain about the lack of pillows. To me, this item, farcical as it is, is in itself good propaganda for the government. If lack of pillows is the only problem, then Mater Dei is next to being perfect. The Opposition has to pick on the very crummy details to criticise. They complain about the details because the bigger picture – the medical service from top to bottom – is being given properly by the dedicated people who serve all of us.

We are living longer, and therefore we have more medical needs and need more support, use more medicines, need more health care and retirement homes. All this is being catered for in a very good way. Of course, there may be hiccups along the line or something that went bad. He who does nothing commits most mistakes. He who criticises without giving solutions and alternatives, but is only the bearer of bad news, commits the worst mistake.

My personal idea would be to present the patient with a detailed cost of the free service given, and its cost to the government and its benefit to the person – whether it is free medicine, or a costly operation, including the cost of overnight stays in hospital. Even the cost at an old people’s home.

This is not to advocate any type of payment, as I do think that they should remain free, but to instil a sense of proportion for those deriving benefit from their medical care. So far few people have an idea of what it takes and how much it costs to see to a person’s medical needs. So if we provide patients with a detailed account of the expenses incurred, this may go some way for them to put things into perspective. Nothing comes free, as somebody else pays for it.

The Opposition media has been on that elections are due soon, well before their due date. So many dates have been mentioned that it tires you. It gives an unwanted sense of insecurity and does nobody any good. People get a false alarm of preparing for elections, not knowing who to believe, what to believe. It may harm both outgoing Maltese travellers as well as tourists, event planners, weddings and all the sort of big social events.

I appreciate the Labour Party’s eagerness to go for elections. All this exposes their hunger for power. An election will, of course, come and go. The result will determine who governs, even if it is by default. However, it’s not nice winning or losing by default, and for a government to be determined by the non-voting part of the electorate. So undemocratic, I think, at the end.

Robert Arrigo is parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry