Isn’t it very odd that the Minister for Health claims he is “not aware” that there is political interference at the health centres? That’s not a denial. It’s a very cagey reply.

Does it mean that he doesn’t exclude that there could be such political interference? Or, more likely, that he doesn’t exclude evidence of other people’s meddling coming out and he doesn’t want to face the music on behalf of someone else?

The spin of the Labour Government for the health sector, over the past three years, has been that all is functioning perfectly and that anything done by the previous government was a disaster.

I like to call a spade a spade, and I will corroborate my point.

Chris Fearne recently announced some very positive initiatives, which I applaud. These initiatives must, however, be placed in the right context.

Take the Government’s support for Puttinu Cares. This agreement already existed. Therefore Chris Fearne should have been fair on his predecessors by saying that his government would be renewing the agreement with, possibly, some improvements.

Another recent announcement by Chris Fearne was that Malta signed the first ever country cooperation strategy with World Health Organisation. The truth is that Malta has been signing biennial collaborative agreements for over 20 years. Malta has this year signed a country cooperation strategy – something a bit different from previous years but the difference originated with WHO, which has reformed its agreements.

Then there are the announcements about GPs doing community work through breast cancer follow-ups and psychiatric cases. Announcing such a service is good but, when it is realistically not available to all, and particularly when GPs themselves have only got to know about this recently, the Government is actually misleading the public into believing that a service exists when, in fact, it does not yet.

Let me make it very clear that I am in favour of increasing such community services. But I have been told by GPs that they were expecting more consultation on the matters. We all know that, unless the GPs themselves are on board with such initiatives, they will simply not work.

From what I gathered, psychiatric patients will not be very keen about being told which doctor to go to. As for the breast cancer follow-ups, GPs have pointed out to me that not all GPs are trained (or equipped) to do a basic ultra-sound and GPs need to be trained to give this very important service.

As for the saga of the 200 million euros investment in health, in response to a recent parliamentary question, Chris Fearne informed me that he is NOT responsible for the dealings because this falls under Projects Malta, i.e. the Office of the Prime Minister, i.e. Konrad Mizzi.

So, what does the Minister for Health really know about the details of the Vitals deal?

I find it very odd that a basic online search for a multi-million investor yields news related only to what is being reported in the local media. Shouldn’t there be news of similar investments elsewhere?

And why has Chris Fearne announced that the deals signed to date will be published in November? Why wasn’t there an announcement when the deals were signed? Was there the due diligence requested by the main unions in the health sector?

Alas, there are to date only questions and very few answers. Muscat and his government continue to play the illusionist’s game. With the right hand they misdirect our attention, while the left hand is working secretively away for who knows what purpose.