Gozo will receive a cash injection of up to €9 million annually when the Barts medical school starts operating at full capacity, initial studies have shown.
The proposed medical school will receive its first student intake for the scholastic year starting in September 2016. The full complement of 300 students will be reached after five years.
Last week, Barts entered into a 15-year agreement with Malta Enterprise, a government agency, to operate a medical school on Gozo. Health Minister Konrad Mizzi told The Business Observer initial studies showed that a 300-student campus would create a cash injection of around €100 million over the 15-year span.
The figures took into consideration students’ lodging needs, per diem spending, visiting relatives and the wages of non-academic staff such as cleaners, who are likely to be Gozo residents. “Malta Enterprise has estimated that the medical school will be equivalent to a factory employing 500 people,” Dr Mizzi said, adding this was a substantial input to the Gozo economy.
The Barts medical school be part of the Gozo Hospital health hub the government wants to create along with St Luke’s Hospital.
But Barts will not be building the campus itself. The actual structure will be built by a private investor that has to be chosen after the government issues a request for proposals to gauge interest in a €200 million overhaul of the Gozo and St Luke’s hospitals.
The health plan will seek private investment for public healthcare facilities while allowing the investor to develop private hospitals for paying medical tourists in Gozo and St Luke’s.
Dr Mizzi said medical tourism in Gozo had the potential to contribute around €13 million annually, excluding hospital fees.
Malta Enterprise figures show that the joint contribution of the Barts campus and medical tourism in Gozo would be equivalent to a cash injection of approximately €20 million per annum.
“This is equivalent to €667 per capita for Gozo,” Dr Mizzi said.
Gozo’s economic contribution amounted to €385.8 million in 2013, equivalent to five per cent of Malta’s GDP, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office last December.