The Minister for Energy happens to also be the Minister for Health. He is also the same (and only) Minister from the European Union listed in the largest international scandal, the Panama Papers. The reason why he is embroiled in this big mess is still very unclear and the explanations have changed over and over again. This whirlwind of a scandal is affecting the daily running of our country. Castille’s PR machine is frantically coming up with innocuous media events to give the impression that business is as usual.

After a series of media events by Chris Fearne, parliamentary secretary for health, somebody must have noticed that it does not look good for the Parliamentary Secretary to outshine his Minister at a time when the Minister is being thrashed by the local and international media, particularly since both politicians are rivals on the same political district.

So, apparently, somebody came up with the idea that since the Minister for Health is in such a mess, the government needs to sell the idea that health is doing really great.

In no time the press were called in and the news spread like wildfire. The joyous headlines read, “More than 90,000 admissions at Mater Dei in 2015, almost 40,000 treated at A&E department.” This paper covered this news item in depth, explaining that this “marks an increase of almost 30,000 from the year 2008.”

Hold it there for just a second. Is Muscat’s government boasting that more people are sick under Labour?

Look at the statistics another way. If anybody needed proof of the current disaster in our health system, this is it. The Ministry for Health is boasting that Mater Dei is overwhelmingly flooded with sick patients.

Think about it. People are expected to feel good because thousands more are so sick that they had to be admitted to our only tertiary hospital.

Am I the only one seeing the absurdity of this message?

Of course I have asked the Minister to table this report in parliament and I am eager to see how long it will take him to do so. We must look at the reasons behind this government’s failure (or should I say disaster) in the health sector.

The hospital report is indicating that there was an increase of 7.5% in the admissions to the Accident and Emergency Department. This, in actual numbers, translates to a total of 128,747 patients who entered the A&E door at Mater Dei needing assistance.

Can you imagine the stress on our dedicated and hard-working staff at the casualty department? No wonder so many healthcare professionals are requesting to be transferred from this hot department simply because they are physically and mentally worn out. No wonder the complaints from patients who have to wait for endless hours to be seen by a doctor have multiplied.

If Mater Dei Hospital was a tourist resort, we would all be boasting about the rise in numbers. But it’s a hospital, not a resort. Success is measured by reducing the number of people that need to go in, not by increasing them.

Therefore the obvious question to ask, is, what has created this huge influx of patients?

For starters we need to see if people are resorting to services at Mater Dei Hospital because they have absolutely no faith at all in this government’s health policy. Since Government has not announced any particular epidemic or other reason for the increase in numbers then, at face value, this simply means that many more people are getting sick, which means that (1) preventive care has failed, (2) community care is insufficient and (3) primary health care is not functioning as it should.

Is this Muscat’s roadmap for our country and our health services? Or do many more people feel sick under Labour?