The World Health Organisation gave Malta a clean bill of health this week.
Its regional director for Europe, Zsuzanna Jakab, here for WHO’s regional meeting for Europe, said that the health sector in Malta should serve as a role model for other European countries and that advances made here are “remarkable” because they are clear examples of “efficient health leadership”.
It was the best kind of endorsement that Malta’s health services could get.
But the next day, the Labour Party organised a press conference in which its spokeswoman in the sector, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, spoke of countless problems in our health system. If one were to believe everything that she said, one would imagine a deep, irreversible crisis.
Who is right? Is it the World Health Organisation, which monitors all that goes on around the world and can compare and contrast countries that have an excellent health system and others that are still developing it? Or is it the Labour Party, which has been targeting our health sector for years to gain some political advantage?
Dr Coleiro Preca did not say anything new in her press conference last Monday. She repeated what she has been saying for years.
That already clearly indicated that the real aim of the event was to rekindle all that Labour has been clamouring about in this legislature, at a time when it knew that health representatives from 53 European countries were in Malta to participate in the WHO regional committee meeting. It just wanted to attract attention when it knew that the focus was on health and throw a bad light on the Maltese health sector.
When asked to react to the positive comments made by the WHO regional director about Malta, Dr Coleiro dismissed them lightly, saying that the WHO regional director does not live here and does not visit our hospitals.
What the Labour spokeswoman said is a serious allegation. She implied that Dr Jakab made her statement without checking what the real situation is. She went as far as saying that the WHO regional director could have based her comment on some document penned by a government executive. In a way, Dr Coleiro Preca implied that Dr Jakab did not know what she was talking about.
Does the PL spokeswoman think that WHO is so irresponsible and makes wild statements? Does she think that the WHO regional director goes about dishing out praise on Malta’s health sector without checking and knowing what is taking place? Does Dr Coleiro Preca believe that the WHO regional director does not care about the Maltese health system but, to look good to her hosts, tells them they’re fantastic?
What Dr Coleiro Preca said indirectly meant that she believes the WHO regional director put her reputation and credibility at stake – and, by default, also of the organisation she represents – just to please the Maltese authorities. I reiterate that this is a serious allegation.
To turn the argument the other way round, what if the WHO director general had, in some way, criticised the Maltese health sector? What if Dr Jakab had expressed some reservation about anything in our system? What if she had just said that Malta’s health sector was a step below that of other European countries?
That, I believe, would have been an altogether different story for the PL and Dr Coleiro Preca.
If this had happened, I am sure that the Labour Party would not have questioned whether or not Dr Jakab lives here or has been in contact with people at Mater Dei Hospital. I am sure that Dr Coleiro Preca would have pounced on the opportunity to quote Dr Jakab and say how bad the situation is. I am sure that the PL would have endorsed Dr Jakab’s words, made them their own, and repeated them every day to reap political advantage.
It was the second time in a week that the Labour Party appeared displeased by positive developments that had taken place. A few days before, official statistics showed that Malta had emerged from the economic recession, but Labour’s answer to that was to say that Maltese families were still in recession and that the country’s economy was doing badly. It’s as if the Labour Party is not pleased when Malta obtains good results or when foreigners – experts in their own areas – say something good about us.
Back to health. The sector is not perfect, and the government has never said that it was. It acknowledges that there are matters that need to be improved.
But one cannot deny the steady progress that this little country of ours has achieved over the past years. No week passes by without some form of agreement being reached, new equipment being bought, a new service being introduced or getting to know that the number of surgical interventions is going up. It was only a few days ago that Malta reached an accord with Italy for Maltese patients to benefit from specialised care in Italian hospitals.
Yes, there are issues that need to be addressed, but overall we should be proud of what we have.
While, during the press conference, Dr Coleiro Preca had so many things to say about the difficulties she said are being encountered, she was left stammering when asked what the Labour Party is planning for the health sector if and when it is returned to government.
She hid behind the usual statements of “we are working on plans”, “the party is still discussing the subject” and that “nothing is being ruled out”. The usual talk that give nothing away and leaves all options open. It’s very easy to try to please one and all when in Opposition, but it leads one to wonder how the Labour Party will administer the health services if given the opportunity.
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