The Nationalist Party has pledged to build a new 400-bed hospital, and to offer chemotherapy and MRI services in Gozo.

In a press conference on Sunday, the PN said that a government led by it would also introduce a direct hospital-to-hospital link between Malta and Gozo by helicopter.

The party said that the Gozitan people are not second-class citizens and that they deserve peace of mind when it comes to their health so that the care being provided in Gozo is at least on the same level as that provided in Malta.

The press conference was addressed by party chief spokesperson Peter Agius, Gozo spokesperson and MP Chris Said, and candidate Josephine Xuereb.

Xuereb said that Gozitan cancer patients need to, as things stand, go to Malta for chemotherapy once or twice a week – a journey which they suffer from owing to their fragile immune system.

Said meanwhile explained how Gozo’s only hospital handed been handed over to Steward Healthcare which as a private company puts profits before the need for investment in the health system in Gozo.

Agius said that emergency patients in Gozo need to be placed in an ambulance, taken the 10-minute journey to Xewkija, where they are placed on a helicopter, flown to Malta, and then picked up in another ambulance to be taken to Mater Dei because the current helipad there is being used as a parking lot.

He said that a PN government would build two new helipads, each on the respective hospital premises.