A good part of the Labour Party’s election campaign was built on the health sector, in particular Mater Dei Hospital. The way it spoke led many to believe that, when elected to government, it had solutions ready to put in place to ease the situation and make the system work better.

Now we are finding out that the Labour government has no clue as to what to do. The few decisions it has taken on the workings of the hospital are the wrong ones, and there is growing alarm out there about the way the government is (mis)handling the situation. It is not the doctors and nurses who are being targeted – the public in general knows their competence and dedication – but the way the hospital is being run is leading to a lack of confidence in the sector as a whole.

We all remember, in the weeks and months leading up to the election, how footage of patients waiting on stretchers in corridors kept surfacing on the pro-Labour media. We all remember the pitiful stories of those who were kept waiting for hours until they were seen by a doctor, and how waiting lists for operations kept on growing. And we also remember reports on the lack of space in wards, the shortage of medicines and the general maladministration of the sector.

What we also remember was Joseph Muscat speaking of a roadmap that was to have been put into place as from Day One of a Labour government, that was geared to sort out all the difficulties and shortcomings at Mater Dei Hospital. Ten months down the line after winning an election, in part, on promises to resolve all of the health sector’s problems, the situation has not improved at all. It was not good a year ago, but now it has become worse.

Before Christmas, we had the absurd decision to postpone non-emergency surgery – something that had never happened under the previous administration. This came after other decisions which did not help, such as tearing up the contract with St James Hospital for emergency services to be provided by this private enterprise at weekends at the government’s expense and the shelving of a plan for the government to take over St Philip’s Hospital. The idea to divide the cardiology department against the wishes of the majority of consultants and the advice of experts is another case that will have its repercussions in the months and years to come. The allocation of office space for the minister within the hospital building is not reaping any dividends either.

Early this week we had more stories about the hospital. These not only concerned patients who are still being kept waiting on stretchers in corridors before being assigned to wards. We had Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia saying that the government is considering handing over the administration of Mater Dei Hospital to a “foreign” company. By foreign, Dr Farrugia did not necessarily mean a company coming from abroad – maybe it would be too much for the government, at this stage, to come to agree with John Dalli after not having endorsed the report it commissioned from him. It could also mean a local company which would be entrusted with the management of the hospital. Whatever the case, there is a kind of hesitancy that exposes a government that is unconvinced as to what it is going to do.

But worse was still to come, as last Friday the Health Ministry decided to construct a tent under which the Mater Dei Hospital day care reception area was to be moved to create more space for treatment. The ministry said it is acting pro-actively and preparing for an influx of influenza cases, but this “pro-action” did not last long as it was the Prime Minister himself who ordered the tent’s removal – however, not before the damage to the government’s reputation had been done.

When news filtered to our newsroom that a tent was being built at Mater Dei, tongue-in-cheek someone remarked that the Three Kings who went to Bethlehem f’Ghajnsielem last week were coming back to stay. But it is certainly no laughing matter.

This bizarre idea exposed sheer incompetence, insensitivity and lack of foresight. To even consider having patients being kept huddled together in the heart of winter under a cold, makeshift tent as they wait to undergo surgery – a very vulnerable and delicate time for all patients, no matter how strong their personality is – is shameful and unbecoming. The previous government made its mistakes in the sector, but it never resorted to such undignified ways, not even when there were risks of a flu pandemic some years back.

It is also another humiliating moment for Minister Godfrey Farrugia. He was over-ruled by his master, who had already placed him under John Dalli’s overbearing shadow. The incident is also of great concern because it shows a government that does not plan ahead, but has individual knee-jerk reactions which are not internally discussed. Labour will say that it is another example that shows it is a government that listens, but it would have been much better for the administration if the incident had never taken place.

All the accusations that the Labour Party had levelled at the previous administration regarding the health sector are coming back to haunt them because they are now realising that coming up with solutions is not as easy as they made it sound before the election.

One argument the Labour government is making is that it cannot be expected to find solutions to the mess left behind in such a short time. Granted, but on the other hand it was expected that, after so much pre-election talk about roadmaps and solutions, something would have been put in place by now to try to tackle the situation. What we have had so far is total confusion, culminating in the erection of a tent that was dismantled before it was completed.

If this is the roadmap for Mater Dei Hospital that the Labour Party had in mind before the election, it is, at best, taking us nowhere and, at worst, leading us on the path towards a total collapse of the system.

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