PN: Gozitan cancer patients should not be forced to make crossing to receive care

The Nationalist Party has said Gozitan chemotherapy patients should not cross over to Malta to receive their medical treatment.  

It has pledged to provide the service, as well as MRI scans, in Gozo, should it be elected into government.  

Addressing a press conference on Sunday afternoon at the Xewkija heliport, candidate and nurse Josephine Xuereb said that Gozitan cancer patients have to make the crossing once or twice weekly in order to receive their chemotherapy, all while in a very fragile state.  

“We are committed to doing away with this unnecessary suffering if we are in government,” she said.  

PN spokesperson Peter Agius was also in attendance, stating the party’s intentions of creating an airlink between the two islands.  

With Mater Dei Hospital’s helipad now serving as a staff car park, and with the Gozo General Hospital not having a helipad, despite having its own air ambulance, Agius argued that the current setup does not work. 

“A patient must spend 10 minutes in an ambulance from the Gozo hospital in Victoria to the helipad in Xewkija, be flown by helicopter to Malta and then be placed in another ambulance to be taken to Mater Dei. This is a waste of time that can mean the difference between life and death,” he said. 

Addressing the press conference, MP Chris Said reiterated the PN’s promise of building a new 400-bed hospital in Gozo. 

He also said the PN will look at taking back the Gozo General Hospital from Stewards Health Care.