The Nationalists' Mater Dei bubble (II)

Following the 1998 election, the Nationalist government arbitrarily discarded plans promulgated by the Labour government, which had been agreed upon by a wide consensus among the stakeholders. The Nationalists unjustifiably terminated the contract of the designers Norman & Dawbarn, nine weeks after they were returned to power. It is worth reaffirming that Norman & Dawbarn had won the contract after a call for tenders. Instead, the Nationalists signed a new direct contract with Skanska for the design, building and supervision of the Tal-Qroqq hospital.

The contract, signed in the year 2000, sets dates of completion ranging from 2003 to 2005 with a penalty of up to Lm5 million for any delays. Skanska bound itself to a target value of Lm83 million for the completion of the construction, electrical and mechanical services etc., but excluding design and management.

An area the Nationalist governments excels in is dishonouring the target dates they set for themselves! Everyone recalls the promise that in 2003 the first patients were set to be admitted to the Tal-Qroqq hospital. It never happened. Then we had a solemn promise made by the Prime Minister that the first patients will be admitted on July 1, 2007. The Minister of Health, Louis Deguara, contradicted his Prime Minister.

Tied with the magical date of July 1, 2007, there is another shameful bubble that has left a black blot on this Nationalist government.

On Monday, November 8, 2004, the Prime Minister made a ministerial statement. On that day, he tried to make us believe that he laboured up the hill with his bags to achieve a colossal victory. Instead, it was a terrible fiasco, whereby the people were coerced to dig deeper into their pockets to sustain, through taxes, more Nationalists' engineered Mater Dei blunders. On that day, the Prime Minister proposed that the completion date be moved from mid-2005 to July 1, 2007; the target cost of Lm83 million for the construction of the hospital as per agreement of February 2000 was now revised to Lm139 million; and all penalties on Skanska Malta JV, as per agreement of February 2000, for not completing the hospital by the established dates were written off.

The Skanska Malta JV directors must have thanked their lucky stars that they were dealing with such an incompetent government. If the contractor had miscalculated the costs, it should have been his problem. He should have seen to that before signing. The contractor had 14 months to make the necessary calculations and valuations prior to signing the contract in 2000.

I have clear recollections of the leader of the Malta Labour Party, Alfred Sant, and myself repeatedly declaring that the total cost of the Tal-Qroqq hospital would amount to Lm250 million once ready and operational. The Nationalist government, including the Prime Minister, tried to ridicule our projections. The Nationalists' propaganda was targeted to make everybody believe that when completed the now Mater Dei Hospital would cost Lm139 million. I recall the caricatures on the Nationalist daily newspaper demonising Dr Sant overshooting the total expenditure of the hospital by Lm111 million. The subliminal message was part of a bigger strategy depicting Dr Sant as a person not to be trusted when he speaks about government expenditure.

Yet, since the 1998 election, various ministers in the Nationalist Cabinet led the people to believe that the cost of the hospital was going to be Lm83 million, then Lm139 million, then Lm145 million, then Lm180 million, then Lm221 million, and now it is Lm250 million.

The truth is finally out. Tonio Fenech's pronouncement to the Texas governor's wife on March 13, that the hospital will cost Lm250 million, concurs with the estimated figure which Dr Sant and I had been mentioning for the past three years! A total of Lm250 million are being spent for a hospital whereby our outstanding Medical School and the Institute of Health Care are being squeezed in the Tal-Qroqq hospital. The oncology services are now no longer part of the Mater Dei Hospital but are being transferred from Sir Paul Boffa Hospital to Zammit Clapp Hospital. Some other services are still missing at Tal-Qroqq. This is not according to the original plans. It is therefore logical to argue that the total sum for completion would have exceeded Lm250 million as a result of the crass incompetence of the Nationalist government.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi needs to justify his political decision to remove the responsibility of the completion of the hospital from the portfolio of the Minister of Health and shift it to the Parliamentary Secretary in the PM's office. Consequently, the budget related to the Mater Dei Hospital was shifted from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Finance. Is it a way of showing "no confidence" in a minister who was supposedly to spearhead the completion of a hospital by 2003 and have it fully operational by 2005? I reiterate that in England a hospital the size of Mater Dei took only four years to complete. The construction agreement between the Foundation for Medical Sciences & Services and Skanska Int. Building Ltd was signed on September 12, 1995. After almost 12 years, the building is supposedly to be commissioned on July 1, 2007. No dates are set for the complete migration of services to Mater Dei Hospital.

The Mater Dei project is riddled with allegations, abuse, contracts which cannot be examined and are hidden away from the public's scrutiny. It is a project which overshot the completion dates and expenditure. No one embarks on projects of this magnitude in this shameful manner.

Eleven weeks prior to the designated pompous ribbon-cutting ceremony, the stakeholders are still uncertain about the migration plans. The Minister of Health and the Parliamentary Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister are not even in unison about the future of Tal-Qroqq Hospital. It is high time that Dr Gonzi explains.

All we know is that the government failed to strengthen the primary health sector as a backup to the Mater Dei Hospital, which is about 100 beds smaller than St Luke's Hospital. All stakeholders insist that the human resources in most professions are far too short of those required to run concurrently Mater Dei Hospital and St Luke's Hospital (as a rehabilitation centre).

What happened to the new proposals and management systems that all stakeholders were promised ad nauseam?

People need a change in public administration. People need a better government that makes sure that their tax money is not squandered and camouflaged by cheap propaganda. People expect to be informed and their expectations need to be met. None of the ills and grievances of the past two decades have been resolved in the Health Department. On the contrary, things have got worse. People are spending more time queuing in the emergency department; waiting lists are longer at the outpatients department; waiting lists to undergo certain investigations are disproportionate; unreasonable long delays for certain types of surgery; and patients' beds are rampant in the corridors of St Luke's. This is a normal every-day experience for all of us to bear. A new building on its own will not solve these problems.

Unfortunately, the Health Minister finds ample time to write articles against Dr Sant, but it seems the ills of the Health Department escape him.

In the meantime, it would be better if Mr Fenech makes sure that when writing articles about bubbles, they do not burst in his face.

Dr Farrugia is the MLP's spokesman on health.

Concluded