PN promises minimum wage for healthcare students, 25% raise for other students

A PN government will give students in the healthcare professions a stipend equivalent to the minimum wage and also offer a five-year tax break for Maltese healthcare professionals abroad who return to work in Malta, PN leader Alex Borg said on Wednesday.

He said the incentives were being promised to encourage more Maltese to work in healthcare, where staff are suffering burnout, and many are moving abroad.

He also announced that a PN government will give a 25% raise in the stipends of all other students in post-secondary education to encourage more young people to follow tertiary courses.

A new financial package would be negotiated within the first 100 days of a PN government, he said.

The PN leader was speaking at a party event in Mellieħa parish square, where healthcare was the main topic.

Borg reiterated promises he made on Tuesday that a PN government will build new hospitals in the north of Malta and in Gozo, expand the Paola health hub and enlarge Mater Dei Hospital. 

The Opposition Leader pledged to complete the works within five years, and said the new facilities were aimed at reducing waiting times and improving access to healthcare services. 

"When it comes to health, there will be no compromises. We want health to be the highest priority in the country. That is why in this electoral campaign we started off by speaking about health," he said. 

Saying the government had no credibility when it came to the health sector, Borg referred to a letter sent to the Health Ministry’s permanent secretary, seen by Times of Malta, that warned that the surgery recovery area, “which should be sterile, quiet, and highly controlled, has effectively been turned into a congested and disruptive environment".

"This is the reality that health workers are facing. We have a ward where patients who have just had an operation are in the most vulnerable state - who because the ward is also being used to put other types of patients - are being exposed to a higher risk of infection and even death," he said, describing the situation as heartbreaking.

He said that while efforts would be made to encourage more Maltese to work in the health sector, the country needed a certain number of foreign healthcare workers to keep up with demand. To this end, PN would remove all expenses related to single permits for foreign workers in the sector.

The PN activity in Mellieħa.

Reiterating a proposal to make all cancer medication free of charge, Borg recalled how his father, who died after a six-year battle with cancer, had to pay for certain medications.

"I thank the Community Chest fund for helping my family, but there were certain medicines we had to buy," he said.

Borg also repeated a pledge to build a national health park to promote wellbeing, prevent illnesses and assist rehabilitation. All these initiatives, he said, were needed to ease the pressure on the healthcare infrastructure. 

Borg concluded by reiterating the Opposition's message that the election is not just a regular one, but "a decision on where we take the country."

"Let’s write a new chapter – now is the moment for PN to breathe new life into the country," he said.

In his address, Borg also confirmed that he will be a candidate on the 12th district (Mellieħa, St Paul's Bay and Mġarr) along with the 13th district (Gozo).