The Nationalist Party has accused the government of “squandering” money on projects that do not come to fruition while the public “struggles to make ends meet”.

In a statement, the PN pointed to a raft of delays to healthcare projects that it said had left the patients and healthcare workers waiting.

Speaking outside the Paola health hub, Shadow Health Minister Adrian Delia and Shadow Primary Care Minister Ian Vassallo accused the government of “deceiving people” and wasting time.

Echoing a similar press conference back in December, the shadow ministers said that despite public funds being spent, “the public remains underserved.”

That month it emerged that the hub, which was originally slated to be completed in 2020, had set the government back by a further €1.8m in costs to Ergon-Technoline consortium.

The project was first given the go-ahead back in 2017, but the process came to a grinding halt when the tender process for construction works was found to have been tainted.

Attacking the government’s record on the Ċensu Moran Paola health hub, the Opposition said that "just a few days ago, we learned that an additional €10,000,000 still needs to be spent to complete it.”

“This is a government of delays... that spends public money recklessly and without a plan, showing no understanding of people’s priorities. Patients and healthcare professionals are suffering as a result of this incompetence,” the PN said.

Pointing to other projects the Opposition said were also evidence of Robert Abela’s government going “off the mark”, it attacked the government’s record on “the new hospital for Gozo, the new mental health hospital, the Northern healthcare hub and many more.”

The PN said the delays had contributed to medicine shortages and rising costs, with patients forced to turn to the private sector to receive treatment.

“Even those prescribed medical necessities, such as specialised footwear or sleep apnoea machines, are being forced to pay for them out of their own pockets, despite these being supposed to be provided for free,” it said.

“For the Government, healthcare is just an election slogan, then it discards it.”

The PN said its proposals included creating functional health centres across the country, including hubs in the north and the south, investment in St Luke’s Hospital, the construction of a new general hospital in Gozo and better investment in the provision of medicines.

It also pledged to upgrade medical equipment, invest in elderly care and mental health services and better channel public funds "towards essential needs, rather than fraudulent hospital deals like those with Vitals and Steward.”

It said a PN government would “not gamble with the health of the Maltese people.”