Multimillion-euro healthcare deals signed by the government and a private company last year and this March will only be published in November, Times of Malta is informed.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Chris Fearne, who only took full responsibility for the health sector in late April after a Cabinet reshuffle, said two agreements with Vitalis Global Healthcare were signed last November and March. They were signed under the political responsibility of Konrad Mizzi, at the time was still health minister. A health services delivery agreement and a services concession agreement with Vitalis were signed in the end of last November, and the property deed was signed this March 2016, the spokeswoman said.
“Subsequently, over the past months, the concessionaire worked with the Health Department and Projects Malta [a State company] preparing for mobilisation and finalising designs. Currently, we are progressing with transition management and the agreements will be tabled in Parliament in November,” she said.
Times of Malta asked Dr Mizzi last November whether a €200 million agreement with Vitalis had been concluded and to give details. However, no replies were forthcoming.
Asked yesterday why the government had not announced the finalisation of the deal with the private company, the Health Ministry’s spokeswoman did not reply.
When Claudette Buttigieg, the shadow health minister, asked in Parliament earlier this week who was conducting negations on the privatisation of Karin Grech, Gozo and St Luke’s hospitals, Dr Fearne pointed out the talks were not being conducted by his ministry but by Projects Malta. This entity falls under the political responsibility of Prime Minster Joseph Muscat and used to form part of Dr Mizzi’s portfolio, prior to the reshuffle.
It would build and run the Gozo general hospital and new medical facilities at St Luke’s and Karen Grech hospitals for the next 30 years
Details on the deal reached with the Vitalis group are still very scant. The most recent news came last November when government healthcare workers had a surprise meeting with a director of the private company.
Introduced to workers by Dr Mizzi as “the new owner of the Gozo hospital”, Ram Tumuluri, a Pakistan-born Canadian citizen, said the Vitalis Global Healthcare Group would build and run the Gozo general hospital and new medical facilities at St Luke’s and Karen Grech hospitals for the next 30 years.
The workers were not given any details about the other investors in the group or their experience in healthcare.
During the meeting, Mr Tumuluri assured workers they would all keep their present positions.
Vitalis Healthcare Ltd was registered as a company in Malta in May 2015 and is fully owned by Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd, which, in turn, is owned by Bluestone Special Situation Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Apart from Mr Tumuluri, the companies all name Mark Edward Pawley, a British former banker and financial controller based in Singapore.
It is not yet known what investment the private entity will make and what the Maltese government will be paying. Questions sent to the Office of the Prime Minster on Tuesday asking for further details on the deal remained unanswered at the time of writing.