There really is no other word for it: shocking. Former Nationalist Minister and EU Commissioner John Dalli’s report on the state of things at Mater Dei Hospital since its very inception has caused tremors all over the Maltese Islands and people are rightly indignant that such horror was, and possibly still is, occurring under our very noses.
Mater Dei had for long been the showcase of a Nationalist administration seeking to camouflage its gradual descent into insurmountable debts, corruption and chaos. The glittering new halls and runway-sized corridors, scintillating operating theatres (some of them unused!), the state-of-the-art equipment and other brand-new facilities had come from millions upon millions of public funds and into the pockets of contractors and their political sugar-daddies as a result of highly suspicious contracts and tendering methods.
There was only one aim: building something big and beautiful – the glare from which could somehow keep in check people’s many preoccupations with their social and economic well-being. When it came to the nitty-gritty, however, things suddenly turned sour and black. The first outrageous realisation was that Mater Dei, huge, spacious and incredibly grand, could accommodate fewer beds than could old St Luke’s Hospital in Gwardamanga!
Then the impact of the full reality sank in. Demotivated staff had to cope with a generally dissatisfied public, screaming for some attention. Waiting lists grew into nightmare lengths and well-meaning, hard-working professionals, from nurses to world-renowned surgeons, simply could not cope with either the load or the system. The Dalli report, in fact, has unveiled the most horrific of work practices and the weirdest of timetables and schedules.
In all this confusion, crass mismanagement and shameful waste of public funds, one must bear in mind that the focus of everything for which a general hospital such as Mater Dei stands should be the patients – taxpayers like you and me – who deserve to be given the best service possible.
Malta has always been proud of her national health service. It has rightly been recognised as one of the region’s best, thanks mainly to the professionally trained and highly dedicated staff that go out of their way to offer top-quality treatment against all odds.
Sadly, the Mater Dei shambles projects the image of someone up high, or some administration seeking to undermine the system by way of “inviting” the private sector into the national network as a face-saving or ideological alternative, an issue that has often been raised by the Labour Party when its suspicions were alerted by the actions and decisions taken at the political level before last March’s general election.
John Dalli is not a Labour henchman seeking to churn out propaganda against the Nationalist Party. Not only is he known to still be a staunch Nationalist himself, but he is also recognised as a leader and organiser, whose political and managerial records speak for themselves. The hideous truths he has brought to the Maltese people’s attention by his no-holds-barred report is testament to his belief in good and responsible governance.
Malta deserves to know these truths. For too long the Maltese people have been left to make do with what politicians dished out in services tarnished by partisan influences and disrupted by frustrating displays of prejudice and favouritism in their lowest and most frightening forms.
The new Labour government considers the National Health Service one of its top priorities. Things have already started to improve, as we have seen with the gradual clipping of waiting lists and out-of-stock medication. Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia has been on the spot, and is likely to stay there for much longer, working relentlessly at trying to apply the brakes and stop the haemorrhaging not only at Mater Dei but also all over the national health scheme.
The shameful state to which the new Mater Dei hospital has been reduced is not something that can be mitigated at the stroke of a pen or by the publishing of a report. There are decisions to be taken and responsibilities to be carried. If anything, the public deserves to know who created and then perpetrated the Mater Dei bedlam and, in the process, threatened the very foundations of our famous, long-established health system.
Joseph Cuschieri is the head of the Labour Party delegation in the European Parliament
[email protected]