At arm’s length

The declaration by former EU health commissioner John Dalli - that he would augur that the Mater Dei state hospital should be free of political interference - should be welcomed. That it comes from a former health minister and commissioner makes it all the more significant.

Dalli isn't just commenting based on his experience over the past few months. He was, after all, a Cabinet minister for nearly two decades.

Informed by the experience of the past few years, Dalli is well aware of just how prone the health sector is to politicians who have been all too keen to embrace unions and succumb to their demands.

The endless list of pre-electoral agreements stands as proof of this persistent mindset.

At Mater Dei, nurses' union MUMN, along with the doctors, have been a stumbling block to change and to focusing on the bigger picture.

Yet John Dalli's comments raise the question: should the maxim of blocking political interference be extended to other equally important spheres?

The answer to that is a veritable yes.

The sectors that are crying out for this kind of treatment are public broadcasting and the police.

Public broadcasting is especially in need of a bi-partisan approach.

Why should public broadcasting - specifically in the current affairs department and the news department - be led by the politics of the day?

The state of affairs at the national broadcaster PBS over the past 40 years has been pitiful, and though the present news bulletin coverage is more fair than in the days of the previous head of news, a robust set up and structure to support a long-term independent policy in transmitting and disseminating factual and unbiased news is certainly not in place as of yet. More importantly still, questioning the establishment - an important broadcasting trait - is a tradition that does not exist in local state broadcasting.

There are then the requirements and commitments in providing general broadcasting service to the general public when it comes to culture and entertainment. In this, there has been a sensible improvement, which is more than apparent.

With regards to the police, there also needs to be a major culture change. This newspaper has always been critical of the workings of the police: the former commissioner had a poor understanding of the media, and rarely reached out to it - a trait for which he was consistenly criticised.

The new commissioner has also come under attack for being too close to the powers that be, though perhaps one needs to give the man more of a chance. He remains, however, much more conscious of the media and its demand for news and information.

What is definitely needed, however, is a clear and equivocal effort to distance the political element and the police executive from each other.

The police need not be linked to the political establishment. They need not take instructions or hints from the political class or the politicians. The police's fight against crime and the upholding public order in so many segments need not have the blessing of politicians. Moreover, to score any inroads into its fight against corruption and the umbilical chord to the political class, the police need to be held at arm's length from the politician.

Dalli's first reference to a Mater Dei run on a management structure which looks at the interest of patients - first and foremost - is what should essentially motivate the reform at Mater Dei.

It will require political resolve, namely that politicians will have to turn a blind eye to the requests of unions, which are motivated most of the time in improving their members' status but not that of the patients, and the standard of public health in Malta and Gozo.

The politicians need to take the first step, and allow the 'managers and professionals' in this sector to take the primary - and dispassionate - decisions that will make health reform at Mater Dei, and beyond, a reality.