Former Labour mayor of Msida and failed Labour general election candidate to be given top post at Mount Carmel Hospital with €65,000 salary
Failed Labour Party general election candidate and former Labour mayor of Msida, Clifton Grima, is to be appointed CEO of the psychiatric hospital, Mount Carmel in Attard, with a salary of €65,000.
Grima has absolutely no qualifications or career experience in management, healthcare or psychiatric care. He is a common-or-garden lawyer. He is just 29 years old.
It is not known on what basis Clifton Grima was chosen to fill this post, given his absolute lack of a track record in the field and his connections to the Labour Party.
The previous incumbent is Dolores Gauci, who is qualified in health services management, and who has worked in mental health since the 1980s. She helped set up the Richmond Foundation and was for a time European president of the Global Alliance for Mental Health Advocacy Networks.
During the election campaign, the Labour Party’s website, Maltastar, had interviewed Clifton Grima. In response to the question ‘Who is Dr Clifton Grima?’, he replied:
I would prefer if other people answered this question. Clifton is a normal 29 year old guy who wants to help his country. During the past years I have kept contact with the people through continuous home visits, an experience which I must admit helped me mature both as a person and also as a politician. I practice as a lawyer and love sports and history.
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http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20130306-interview-clifton-grima
Shame on you, Joseph Muscat.
Issa jkun hemm xi laqghi jaghmillu x-xoghol hu u Clifton jaqta’ z-zigarelli.
What a spineless nation.
Isn’t this habit of speaking about oneself in the 3rd person, a HUGE red flag?
” love sports and history. ”
What’s this? The CV of a 16 year old ?
Qabza ta’ kwalita’ ohra.
Not only has he never rung the doorbell of my Msida home, I’ve NEVER seen him doing the ‘home visit’ rounds in Msida.
Leo Brincat has done them at regular intervals, and the affable Charles Selvaggi is surely the most prolific home-visitor in that town.
Mr. Grima is a genuinely ‘nice guy’ from a hard-working Msida family. I had a very brief (non-political) chat with him when he sat at the table next to mine in my local. But like you, Daphne – I fail to see how, why, or on what criteria he is to be elevated so.
Maybe there’s a Mallia connection here too? The Bullfrog was a very successful District 9 candidate, don’t forget.
Outrageous and scandalous. I wonder what Charlie Azzopardi (“Family Therapist” and General Election Labour Candidate) would have to say [professionally speaking] about this appointment? To me it looks like “insanity” is taking an insidious and firm grip on the island.
When I read such news I am sad but also, in a perverse way, happy. Happy to know I was right and that all those boasting about ‘switching’ to Labour were wrong, and some of them know it already but won’t say so.
Was the post advertised?
Did the previous CEO resign and if so why? What was here remuneration package?
Was this not one of positions where the people were promised that they would participate in the appointment?
Did the voting document for the Msida local council have this post as a codical?
Ms. Gauci was still on probation, therefore it was probably “bye and thank you Ma’am”.
I expect the usual deafening silence from our medical and mental health professionals. Keep calm and carry on.
Man, this is so cool. This gives people like myself hope that, like Costanza from Seinfeld, I can be an architect one day without any real experience or education in that field.
I’m sitting on the phone waiting for the call where they tell me I’m head of the Planning Authority. I’m not fussy, Joey – any post will do.
By the same criteria I could be made consultant brain surgeon at Mater Dei.
But the probability is that most of us will be made redundant instead. But than on there will always be ‘dirghajn il-Maltin’.
Ms Gauci is a true professional who has a passionate vocation in the field…..and this Taghna Lkoll (my foot!) government does it again and appoints a jerk in her stead.
We never saw Doris Gauci on the PL Billboards , so how do you expect that she keeps her post?
Doris Gauci is greatly respected in mental health circles as a capable and dedicated professional.
As a certain dentist, that has been illegally appointed as a part-time executive chairman (the position does not exist in the statutes of the Council ) with a 94k yearly package, then this “nice guy” should be earning at least double if he is full time.
Il-meritokrazija ta’ Joseph Muscat.
Can see another opportunity for another paid “consultant”. E io pago……….
Psychiatric hospital, eh? Should fit right in.
I live in Msida, and never met this guy in all these years. Than he had the cheek to send us a letter before the election. I contacted him via Facebook and he never replied.
Jien Nazzjonalist daqskhom hbieb, Clifton bniedem li ma jarax politica, jekk titolbu l ghajnuna zgur ha jejnek mil lahjar li jista, J Alla ikollu iktar min hekk ghax jixraqlu
[Daphne – Exactly what does that have to do with the issue in question.]
That’s irrelevant. He could be the nicest chap in the world. The point is that you do not replace a person who is highly qualified in a sector, who enjoys high esteem both nationally and internationally, and who is passionate about the mental health sector with some random lawyer whose only qualification is that he happens to be a PL politician.
Nawgurawlu kull gid u fortuna, ghaliex le? Izda il-fatt jibqa li Clifton Grima m’ghandu ebda esperjenza, jew kwalifiki ghal-din il pozizzjoni, tant importanti f’Mt. Carmel. Dan hu il punt kollu, Markus
Just when you think that Malta Taghna Lkoll cannot get any worse, *it does*.
Un-be-effing-lievable. What a bunch of utterly irresponsible idiots.
I don’t get it.
Where s the Opposition?
Where is the media?
Why are you the only person out there that’s challenging these pathetic decisions?
[Daphne – The Nationalist Party has written about it in its media, but I don’t hear anything from the PN shadow health minister.]
This “new” version of the Labour movement is manifesting an outrageous habit of insulting the intelligence of the Malta public especially the misguided electors who voted for this brashly arrogant lot. A day of reckoning will come sooner or later.
Intant…http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-08-28/news/unemployment-up-by-95-in-july-nso-2442330113/
Ejja nghidu li mhumiex cifri koroh izzejjed. Imma huma ta’ thassib. X’qed jaghmel il-gvern?
A rise in the unemployed is always worrying, irrespective of the numbers involved. In this case it is doubly worrying given that in July seasonal employment in the hospitality sector is in full swing. Unemployment usually dips in summer….
So it turns out the rumours which seemed outrageous turned out to be outrageously true. After tasting a breath of fresh air by having someone who understands the complexities of mental health at the helm of the hospital administration, it turns out this was only a brief reprieve.
The previous vacant CEO post had been advertised. At first, none of the applicants (all of whom worked at least in healthcare and most of whom worked in mental health) were found suitable for the post, until Ms Dolores Gauci was appointed.
And now…no vacancy…no advertisement…no healthcare or management experience…no mental health experience…but the job still goes to…the earmarked least eligible candidate!
Way to go – another blatant move by the “Taghna Lkoll Movement”.
Naturally, someone qualified will do the actual work.
Malta Taghna lkoll.. I wonder how they’re not using that statement in stand up comedy yet.