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GSD making use of Government resources for party political purposes, claims GSLP/Liberals
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The GSD continue to make use of Government resources and information for party political purposes even though an election has been called and all the candidates have now signed up.
In a statement today, the GSLP/Liberals add: It will be recalled that projects like the new air terminal and the small car park at Ragged Staff were accelerated with workers on-site day and night in order to suit the electoral calendar of the GSD.
This approach continued last week with the release of the Gibraltar Health Authority annual report which covers the period up to the end of last year 2010. The release of the glossy, colour report, however, has been timed to coincide with the general election campaign.
There is a perception that this is in order to provide some media exposure to caretaker Health Minister Yvette Del Agua whose handling of Gibraltar’s Health Service, at a political level, has left much to be desired, the GSLP/Liberals say.
And add: The Minister will be best remembered for having defended the road worthiness of the GHA ambulances on the same day that two of them failed the MOT test. Moreover, when documentary evidence revealed that new ambulances had not been ordered because the Minister had not signed the requisition papers, the GHA simply announced that the minutes were not correct and that they would be changed.
It is obvious that, despite the Government’s continued propaganda, there is still much to do in order to improve the facilities and services at St Bernard’s Hospital. The policy of the Government has meant that, despite a hardworking staff, many good ideas and good people are being held back. Two key policy decisions in relation to the employment of outside experts in senior health posts and the decision to move the hospital in an office block have left a negative legacy right up to this day.
The caretaker Minister seems to think that everything is about money, instead of about how that money should be prioritised and how the available resources should be spent. It is obvious that every new Government will try to build upon and improve on what they inherited. This happened to the GSLP as well,who inherited a health service budget of £8 million 23 years ago in 1988 and left it at £ 20 million in 1996, a growth of 150% in eight years.
The GSLP/Liberal statement ends by saying that "It should be obvious to Mrs Del Agua that if successive Governments did not build on what they inherited then we would still be stuck with the old colonial medical service which dated back to the days of Queen Victoria!"
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