Karl Schembri
On the face of it, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s strategically placed announcement on Xarabank that government will be including Herceptin – a hefty breast cancer drug – on the national health service, can only be met with applause.
For years, women in need of Herceptin have had to sell their family jewels to cope with the prohibitive expenses that can go up as high as €46,500.
Never mind the national breast screening programme promised a year ago and of which there is still no trace in the government health service; who would not pat Gonzi on the back for this touch of benevolence amid widespread economic austerity?
A closer look at the actual announcement, however, reveals the real sinister side behind the Gonzi administration, going out of its way to spin anything.
What the prime minister’s announcement effectively means is that the forthcoming Government Gazette will include a call for tenders, for suppliers to register their interest and give their quotes.
The tendering process will take at least six weeks, then another six weeks until the best offer is judged, and possibly more if one of the bidding parties feels it has been unjustly left out. So far from giving a specific date from when Herceptin will start being given for free, Gonzi just said he was issuing a call for tenders.
Now compare Gonzi’s ‘announcement’ with another one made by one of his own junior ministers, Joe Cassar.
Six months ago, this parliamentary secretary made precisely the same announcement on TVM – incidentally the same television channel.
Cassar said last April that “the decision was taken” so that women in need of Herceptin would get it for free, although he stopped short of giving a date.
So six months down the line, the prime minister is effectively saying that it took his government all these months to draft a call for tenders for this drug, while those who need it are spending all their lifetime savings on it, or even worse, dying.
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