The saintly and wise Gozitan priest Paolo Cardona died at the beginning of this week.

Among the comments put up on the social media there was an interview with him in which he spoke with great candour about his fatal illness. He also described how those like him in Gozo have to endure additional hardship - they have to wake up at 4am, are collected by a van and taken to Malta and the hospital for chemotherapy after which they have to wait until all finish and can leave to return to Gozo and their home.

All this the good priest described without a whimper of anger or protest, as people in Gozo deal with the weather or rough seas. But I, also being of half Gozitan stock, was shocked to the core. Instead of the promised new Gozo hospital the people of the sister island are forced to make do with a hospital that dates back to the Sixties. And to get chemotherapy services they still have to come to Malta with all the hardship this entails.

I was immediately reminded of the makeshift underground spaces at Mater Dei turned into wards with portakabins for showers and toilets and no space between beds for people who have worked all their lives in honesty and who don't deserve to be treated like this at the end of their lives.

We don't deserve to be treated like this. We are still engrossed in coming to terms with the catastrophe of the sale of the three hospitals, which we now realise was mired in corruption. And the government still seems hesitant to plan the way ahead.

Instead, the man responsible for this disgrace, Joseph Muscat, was greeted like a visiting royal when he returned to the same parliament from where he was booted out. He was allowed to shift the discussion on to the provision of energy, was allowed to run over the allotted time and treated with kid gloves.

And two newspapers, MaltaToday and Orizzont, independently came to the conclusion his testimony was "convincing". I am not discussing energy provision today and would have a lot to say as well as on this so-called economic miracle based on the sale of EU passports and the mass invasion of Third Country nationals.

I am speaking instead of a health system that is coming apart even though it came through Covid with flying colours. That is not the experience of the British, for instance. Look how the House of Commons tackled Boris Johnson over the past week and laid at his door those lost to Covid while Johnson's staff held parties. Johnson then was also punished for lying to the House. One should have heard the speeches by, among others, Theresa May and Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt to learn and that by Jacob Rees-Mogg fake accent and all to learn how to lose a cause.

But then Johnson was not allowed in the House during the sitting although Rishi Sunak stayed away from the vote, as did many Tory MPs. It's not only Malta that has problems.

As has Italy which has just had its royal funeral with Berlusconi praised to high heavens despite his brushes with the law. A sycophantic sermon by a favourable archbishop will not erase the smell of sleaze surrounding the bier.

In a way, Muscat may look like outliving both Johnson and Berlusconi. But no amount of tinkering with high-end cars and no amount of repeated travel to places like Baku will erase the smell of sleaze.

He may still be defended by the likes of Manwel Cuschieri and, actually, there is no real need for people to gather and protest. It is enough for people to tell him loud and clear to his face, that he is, and will remain, the "disgraced prime minister".

We are learning this day after day that the real test for leaders and parties is gauged by the impact on the small people rather than by the amount of lucrative contracts given out to friends and relatives.

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