Situation at Mater Dei unjustifiable, says Muscat

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that it was important that the people responsible for the "shocking and unjustifiable" situation at Mater Dei must be held accountable.

Muscat said that the government had appointed former health minister John Dalli to write up a report on the current situation at Mater Dei so that it will be able to see what it could do better.

The report entitled 'Mater Dei Hospital: A Better Social Return', was issued yesterday.

Amongst other findings, the report concluded that the primary problem was an inexistent management with all departments and stakeholders working on their own - disjointed from others.

"It was crucial for us to understand what the situation in order to be able to make progress in the months and years to come," he said.

"The report has shown that the situation at hospital was nothing short of shocking and unjustifiable," he said, saying that the reported lack of management was worrying.

Muscat stressed that the situation was even more unacceptable due to the many millions of Euros which had been spent on the hospital - money, he said, which the taxpayers themselves forked out.

"These people need to be held accountable," he said, adding that the health minister (Godfrey Farrugia) was currently in the process of looking into who exactly was responsible for such negligence and carelessness.

 "The fact is that new structures are needed in order to avoid cases of mismanagement," he said.

Muscat, who was speaking in a telephone interview with One Radio, has spent the last few days in Miami where the Prime Minister was promoting Malta's proposed Investor Investor's Programme in which foreigners can apply for Maltese citizenship at a cost of €650,000.

When asked about his visit to Miami, Muscat said that it only served to convince him more that the IIP will bring "enormous gain for the country".

He said that Malta, through the scheme, will not only be gaining financially but will attract lots of talent too.

With regard to the Nationalist Party's continued strong opposition to the bill, Muscat said that he was still willing to discuss with them their concerns, adding that he hoped common sense will prevail in future discussions.