With continuous issues stopping the Paola health hub from coming into service, St Luke's Hospital remaining abandoned and Karin Grech Hospital waiting to be refurbished, it is no surprise that people don't want to work in the medical sector, PN MP Adrian Delia said.
Delia said that Health Minister Jo-Etienne Abela was unable to answer how much of the burden the Paola Hub would take off of Mater Dei Hospital. Delia continued that the Gozo General Hospital works are expected to be completed within seven years.
Delia said that currently no one is being served in Paola Hub, despite a response to a Parliamentary Question on Monday where he said Minister for Health Jo-Etienne Abela said mobile MRI units were temporarily set-up under tents in the car-park to ensure that the public receives the service it needs. Additionally, Delia pointed out that despite Paola Hub being planned to open in 2022, already making the project 3 years late, on being quizzed in parliament as well as by journalists the minister had said that he was hopeful that Paola Hub would be open by 2025. He added that on Monday Abela also disclosed that the Northern Hub will remain closed due to "new assets" being obtained rendering it "unnecessary".
Delia said that currently the health sector is in "crisis" following "11 years of corruption" with the minister continuing to look to the "shameful past" instead of looking forward, adding, "Labour has given up." He assured that the PN doesn't only criticise but also gives the people comfort that under a PN government, it will deliver functional hospitals in Malta and Gozo as well as good primary healthcare.
On his part, PN MP Ian Vassallo stressed that the government's projects, particularly the Paola Hub, didn't deliver. He reminded that during Chris Fearne's term as Minister for Health he had promised that a patient could "come for an operation and then go home" at the Paola Hub, but instead despite much investment and apparatus at the ready, no service is being provided.
Vassallo concluded with an appeal to the government to resolve the issue since, "We are not talking about objects, but people."