The government and its large swathes of blinkered devotees may pay little heed to investigations carried out by the free press and the crying foul of the parliamentary opposition, and they may ignore the writing that has been on the wall so clearly for so long when it comes to the great hospitals heist.

They may ignore us and well-meaning politicians but when it comes to the hands-on, brass tacks of the matter one would have to be mighty fooling indeed if one were to ignore what the country’s actual doctors are saying.

Doctors, you see, are governed by the ethical standards of the Hippocratic Oath – they are beholden, in their professional lives, to that and not to any particular party.

And that is when the country’s doctors, under the auspices of the Medical Association of Malta, speak up, they really ought to be listened to.  These are, after all, the frontline people, they are the experts in medicine and against that no one, absolutely no one can argue.

When one is diagnosed with a serious illness, one may seek a second opinion from another doctor, but no one, unless they have a death wish, would completely ignore that advice.

And that is why when the country’s doctors band together to demand the government ‘cuts its losses’ on a privatisation deal that has clearly gone bad, one should listen.

When doctors say that millions are being squandered on this deal and that such funds should be far better spent on equipment and services, one should listen.

Doctors have diagnosed the problem with the hospitals that have been privatised through two consecutively strange deals, and the recommended prognosis is that we stop draining the public coffers because this particular public-private-partnership has been an abject failure.

According to them, every year we are pumping tens of millions of euros into the operations of the three state hospitals being privately run by the American Steward Healthcare – the company that took over in the wake of the Vitals Global Healthcare debacle that has been steeped in so many corruption allegations that the mind boggles, but let us not digress.

This money is simply going down the drain, rather than going into the better quality healthcare, doctors feel they would be able to deliver to the Maltese public.  But not only that, commitments on projects are not being met either with the promised state-of-the-art newly refurbished St Luke’s, Karen Grech and Gozo General Hospitals being a long, long way off from that lofty goal.

The doctors, very reasonably ask, where has all the money gone?  They are demanding that the government ‘stops the bleeding’ that is the €1.5 billion deal.

But it seems that no one in government or any staunch follower of this particular governing party has any problem whatsoever with somewhat less than lacklustre way in which the hospitals that have been privatised are being run, or perhaps not being run, or with the massive haemorrhage the whole deal is causing the state coffers.

At least the Leader of the Opposition is fighting in court to have the deals rescinded, as are sections of the press.  But that is not enough, the people need to be demanding  to have back what is rightfully theirs, and to not have their hard-earned tax euros being flushed down the drain to wind up somewhere in the British Virgin Islands or an American back account.  This is Maltese money that is being wasted, and this needs to stop.

We understand that this deal had been struck by former health minister and that the current incumbent inherited this disastrous situation.  But how will it take to set matters right and return to the people what is theirs? 

The buck cannot keep being passed ad infinitum, it has to stop somewhere and someone down the line needs to take the necessary action.