Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/884700
PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI Adrian Delia suffers trust deficit among PN voters Newspaper post SUNDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2017 • ISSUE 935 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY SUNDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2017 • ISSUE 935 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT €1.75 SUNDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2017 • ISSUE 935 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY today today • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY today • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY BUDGET 2018 SHYNESS IS NOT NICE... SPECIAL EDITION OUT ON TUESDAY O M M AUTO LEASING MATTHEW VELLA THE directors of the Public Broadcasting Services ques- tioned CEO John Bundy about programmes produced in-house at TVM, that were being planned to be farmed out to a private stu- dio in Tarxien. In a meeting held some time in August, the PBS directors learned of a decision to have popular daytime show TVAM, Niskata and Illum ma' Steph to be farmed out to a private studio, Timecare. It was through the intervention of the board that TVAM was kept at the TVM studios. The decision was one of a series that later led the PBS directors to take a vote of no-confidence in Bundy, although the CEO has not yet been dismissed. PAGE 4 Oncologist's study fi nds too few women are taking up their breast screening appointments PBS board questioned Bundy over farm-out to Tarxien studio MOUNT CARMEL Patients at rundown Mount Carmel hospital ward moved to 'new' ward MIRIAM DALLI & DENISE GRECH FEMALE patients at Mount Carmel Hospital who were liv- ing in "inhumane" conditions have been transferred to an- other ward, with plans to close down ward 8, Health Minister Chris Fearne has confirmed. MaltaToday has been follow- ing the plight of patients who for weeks were forced to live in sub-standard conditions, sleep- ing on mattresses on the f loor and making use of an open toi- let. A letter penned by the pa- tients gave MaltaToday a first- hand experience of what they had to endure, prompting a visit by the health minister a day af- ter the publication of the story. The visit resulted in direc- tions being issued to the hos- pital's administration to close down ward 8 for good. Ward 8, the minister confirmed, had not been in use and only reo- pened "due to an inf lux of pa- tients suffering from substance abuse". "The ward was reopened to cater for the sudden inf lux," Fearne said. today www.maltatoday.com.mt S P E C I A L E d I t I o n €1.00 PAGE 9 • Editorial tUESdAY • 10 OCTOBER 2017 • issuE 559 • puBlishEd EvERy wEdnEsday and sunday BUDGET 2018 6 We have to talk about cannabis 14 15 PAGE 4 KURT SANSONE ADRIAN Delia starts his tenure as Na- tionalist Party leader facing an uphill struggle to convince his own supporters to trust him, a MaltaToday survey has found. Delia trails Prime Minister Joseph Muscat by 29 per- centage points in the first trust rating since taking the PN's top post last month. But his bigger problem may rest with those who voted PN at the last election, where 41% trust neither of the two leaders, or are uncertain of their choice. He only manages a trust rating of 54% among PN vot- ers and 22% nationally. This contrasts sharply with Muscat's trust rating, which runs at 92% among Labour voters in the last elec- tion and 51% nationally. The telephone survey among 506 randomly-selected people was done between October 2 and 5, the same week the PN leader was sworn in as MP and subse- quently Opposition leader. The contest to replace Simon Busuttil, who resigned after June's electoral defeat, was acrimonious as Delia, a political outsider, faced allegations of impropriety. Now Delia must convince his party he is their best chance to win the next election. But at this stage, even this appears to be a remote pos- sibility. The survey found the PN trailing the PL by 25 points if an election were to be held now. mt survey sibility. The survey found the PN PGS 10-11 'If cannabis really was a gateway drug, there would be millions more drug addicts than there actually are'