There are some top-dollar names associated with the new plans for Gozo General Hospital but there is a $64,000 question: what do they actually mean to Gozitans and to the Maltese who will obviously have equal access to it?

Employing Harvard University as management consultants will surely be a good thing.

A training campus run by London’s famous Bart’s Hospital will be a good thing.

An additional 160 beds - 100 of them available to ‘medical tourists’ - will be another good thing. It is a €200 million deal, which sounds wonderful for Gozo, and beyond.

What we have not been told is where that €200 million is coming from. For the new deal is a ‘public-private partnership’ involving a30-year contract with the Vitals Global Healthcare Group which,this newspaper told us last November, is fully owned by Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd, whichis owned by Bluestone SpecialSituation Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands (there is probably a good reason for that). They have been described as “the new owners” of the Gozo hospital.

What we don’t know is who owns the new owners, although one company officer is a former British banker who may live in Singapore.

And we don’t know how much of the investment they are providing. Not even how much, if anything, will be forthcoming from the good ol’ EU. Is Bart’s Medical School investing or is it being hired to come and help?

Who chose and is paying for the Harvard “consultancy”?

We all know the difference between a private and a public hospital. It is perfectly possible for a great hospital to be both. But are the new beds to bewholly private?

Given the recent fuss about secret offshore banking, will we all feel relaxed about having a local hospital owned by a company based in the BVI?