The PN on Monday said that Mater Dei Hospital is "collapsing," and the country's health sector is in a crisis, with the government failing the public in the health sector.

PN MPs Adrian Delia, Stephen Spiteri and Ian Vassallo spoke at a press conference about the current situation in Mater Dei.

Spiteri quoted recent statistics tabled in parliament where in 2024, there were around 105,000 admissions in Mater Dei for some type of treatment. In 2023, there were around 99,000, he said.

"This clearly shows that the hospital is experiencing great strain and overcrowding, and it is no wonder all the wards and departments are in the state they are in," Spiteri said.

He said that all healthcare workers are experiencing stress with the amount of work and patients which attend Mater Dei for treatment.

Certain departments such as the Emergency Department is especially overcrowded, and today, emergency healthcare workers work 24/7 due to the amount of patients.

"The population exploded, and government failed to invest in infrastructure. The spaces need to be renovated, outpatients and emergency are full up, there are wards in corridors and certain areas which were used as wards during Covid-19 have remained wards with inadequate resources," Spiteri said.

He said that Malta is not a one-hospital country, and the failures following the Vitals and Stewards deals resulted into not only a lack of infrastructure, but a lack of services, quality, excessive delays, and government has to resort to the private sector, so much so it had to outsource part of the emergency department.

Spiteri said that St Luke's Hospital and Karin Grech could have served as a shoulder to Mater Dei in a true public-private partnership had they actually been renovated.

He continued that there are also great shortcomings when it comes to mental health, where the PN would build a mental health hospital next to Mater Dei which would include an emergency department for mental health.

Spiteri spoke about the PN's proposals in the oncology sector, as well as proposed that the Community Chest Fund stops administering chemotherapy, and instead it would be distributed at government pharmacies or through the POYC.

The PN would strengthen palliative care so that patients live in dignity and receive support from a strong human resource, who could be around 24/7 and they would not be abandoned, Spiteri said.

Spiteri said the PN is proposing a walk-in clinic for cancer patients so that if they have an emergency, they would not mix with other patients at the emergency department, to their detriment.

It is also proposing that the elderly are given priority in waiting lists, especially orthopaedic ones, and that the elderly would be provided with a family doctor, free of charge.

He said the PN is committed to strengthening primary care, which is the key to and would regulate the influx of secondary care.

Vassallo said that Mater Dei is collapsing, and government has not invested in a quality product, nor in places where diagnoses can be made.

He said that the Labour government increased the population and failed to invest in everything else, including the health sector.

Vassallo said that despite the great expenditure towards the Southern Vincent Moran Health Centre, it is still closed. Government also "threw away" plans for a Northern health centre, he said.

He continued that up till April of this year, there were already 46,000 people who went to Mater Dei's emergency for treatment, 12,000 of which were in January.

Vassallo said that government has not invested in mental health as it failed to renovate Mount Carmel hospital, and people now refuse to go there due to its stigma and unwelcoming environment.

He said that the country is not at the forefront in the EU in terms of investment towards health, and the medicine in the country is not being updated as should be.

Delia said that 12 years were wasted due to the Vitals and Steward deal, where €400 million were spent, and the three hospitals which the PN brought back to the public lacked any investment.

Delia said that Prime Minister Robert Abela has failed to mention anything about the arbitration process since last year, and questioned whether the government will bring back the €400 million lost.

He said that the population has increased by around 140,000 people, meaning around 30% of the population.

In the same 12 years, Mater Dei's activity increased by more than 30%, and the infrastructure is being burdened.

Delia said that the South Centre is closed despite all the expenditure, the Floriana Health Centre and Karin Grech were "condemned" with government saying that the former will close soon, and the Northern centre will not even be built.

Delia said that government issued a tender for the extension of the emergency department for €80 million, yet the only tender which was placed was for €140 million.

"Either those who put the tender are seeing big, or else government had no idea how much it would cost for what it wanted," Delia said.

He said that after 12 years, he has no faith that government can ever solve the problem it created.

Delia said the PN is committed to a massive investment towards the country's hospitals, health centres, and the people.

"There is a pandemic in the mental health sector. Government will not build a new mental health hospital, but it has to see what it will do about a population which is subjected to stress, anxiety, burnout, solitude," Delia said.

Delia was asked if he supported Opposition Leader Bernard Grech in his run for the next general election, to which he said that he gave his full support to any PN Leader, including Grech.

Labour Government has invested a record €1,500 million in people's health this year, PL says

In the last budget of a Nationalist Party Government in 2012, €376 million was allocated to health and the elderly, "a figure which contrasts sharply with the allocation made this year by a Labour Government which increased it to a record €1,500 million," the Labour Party said in reaction.

The PL gave "a few examples that contradict the Opposition's false statements made earlier today."

"The Labour Government increased the expenditure for Mater Dei Hospital by 250%, Primary Care by 200%, Gozo by 352%, POYC by 750% and Active Ageing by 1,057%."

The Government "was clear on the ongoing projects in Primary Care, Mater Dei Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. The recent MR Linac projects at SAMOC Hospital, mammography, CT scanner and MRI scanner at the General Gozitan hospital, CT scanner at the St Vincent de Paul facility, SPECT-CT scanner, two PET-CT scanners and digital pathology are just a few of the innovative initiatives in the last two years. The Censu Moran Centre is expected to start offering services next summer."

"Members of the Opposition are using recycled accusations that are baseless." The Labour Party said it "notes the dishonesty of PN spokespersons who failed to say that when the PN opened Mater Dei Hospital in 2007 it was already welcoming patients in corridors. Through a private agreement and now thanks to helpline 1400, the Labour Government continues to see that no patient receives 'corridor care'," it said.

"The enlargement of the emergency department and the construction of the new psychiatric unit will take place in a Mater Dei area completed in 2017 and not on the original area built by Skanska in 2015 using defective concrete. This was precisely the concrete that a Nationalist Government had given a waiver about so that it would never be challenged.  In the health sector, people know how much Labour Government is striving to protect people's interests and invest in more health services for the benefit of the Maltese," the PL said.