Mater Dei Hospital plans 'evolved and changed' in three years - Gonzi

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday said that the plans he had agreed with Skanska in 2004 for the completion of Mater Dei Hospital had evolved during the passage of the three years up to 2007, when the hospital had been delivered. A major difference was the fact that the space then earmarked for an oncology centre in the new hospital had been given up for other services, and the oncology centre would now be outside the physical contours of Mater Dei.

The Prime Minister was answering a number of supplementary questions by Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat on whether the Lm6 million agreed with Skanska to provide six new units at the then incomplete hospital had been deducted from the final payment to the company because three of the units had not been delivered.

Dr Gonzi said he was proud of the agreement with Skanska in spite of the opposition's scepticism at the time. The final position was that the government and Skanska had no claims against each other.

Earlier, opposition social services spokesman Michael Farrugia had asked Health Minister Joseph Cassar how much it would cost to develop the infrastructure for a linear accelerator at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, only to have to develop new infrastructure at Mater Dei when the linear accelerator was installed there.

Dr Farrugia observed that Sir Paul Boffa had been meant to close down in 2007.

Dr Cassar agreed that the infrastructure could not be transferred from one hospital to the other, for obvious reasons including the use of special concrete for an underground bunker to keep in radiation. There were a number of very valid reasons for the final decision not to transfer the oncology services to Zammit Clapp Hospital but have them at Mater Dei.

Dr Cassar said oncology had improved so much that instead of a five-year survival rate, talk was now of 10 years. The government was looking at three linear accelerators to deliver more than just oncology treatment. Zammit Clapp was not suitable for such modern developments when the government's overriding aim was to serve the best interests of cancer patients.

The government had observed all contractual obligations with Skanska, he emphasised.

Dr Muscat recalled that in November 2004 the Prime Minister had stated in Parliament that the cost of completion of Mater Dei would reach Lm139 million, but the final figure had risen to Lm149 million - around €25 million more. Had the additional Lm6 million agreed with Skanska for the completion of six units, including the oncology unit, been fully paid in spite of the fact that only three of those units had been delivered?

Dr Cassar asked where Dr Muscat had got the €25 million figure. The actual difference had been only €4 million. There was a wide chasm of difference between the requirements of 2004 and those of 2010. He compared it to the difference between a Mini-Minor and a Ferrari.

It would have been impossible to do all that had been done at Mater Dei for a difference of Lm6 million. Even the opposition had eventually agreed that the hospital was state-of-the-art, and he would go further by calling it an example to the rest of the Mediterranean.

Intervening, Dr Gonzi said it was true that the plan in 2004 had been to have oncology treated at Zammit Clapp, but the plan had been revised, as had other plans. The latest development was that the oncology unit would be housed in space outside the original space intended for it in Mater Dei.

The construction of Mater Dei had been a long saga, but he was proud of the final outcome. Even the migration of patients to the new hospital, which had been expected to take six months and cost millions of liri, had taken a few weeks at much less cost, thereby giving the lie to the opposition's predictions.

Dr Gonzi said the hospital had come out of public funds and the government was ready to provide full accounts, but the best proof was its physical presence.

Dr Farrugia's question about how much the infrastructure for the linear accelerator would cost at Sir Paul Boffa remained unanswered.