Updated 5.30pm - UHM reiterates suspicions

The doctors’ association and the country’s second largest trade union want Parliament and the Auditor General to probe the deal whereby three hospitals were handed over to an “anonymous” company with just “two employees”.

The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin and the Medical Association of Malta wrote to the Public Accounts Committee demanding an investigation into the deal and the publications of all contracts. They also asked the Auditor General to conduct its own due diligence assessment on Vitals Global Healthcare, which is running the Gozo, Karin Grech and St Luke’s hospitals.

The UĦM and the MAM questioned how a company with just two employees and no HR and procurement departments could run a single office let alone three hospitals. They said it appeared Vitals had neither the money, nor the people or the experience to take on such a task.

They quoted Health Minister Chris Fearne saying the hospitals were given to Vitals for €3 million and an annual ground rent of €500,000. They wondered whether the properties would be used by Vitals to obtain a bank guarantee and asked whether potentially low valuations breached State aid rules.

It appeared it had neither the money, nor the people

The MAM and the UĦM said the only planning applications filed so far were for works on the St Luke’s façade and the building of officers and lecture rooms in Gozo, indicating there were no serious intentions to build new hospitals.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, they said, had issued a warning about one of Vitals’ directors, Ram Tumuluri, after his involvement in a failed hotel venture.

They said doubts on the deal would remain even after the investigations were done because the two people negotiating it had secret companies in Panama and had contacted no fewer than nine banks in which to put money running into the hundreds of thousands of euros.

The MAM and the UĦM wondered where the earnings from Vitals’ operations in Malta would be going, particularly seeing the company’s ownership structure passed through the British Virgin Islands. Any doubt had to be eliminated, they insisted, adding they would not sign any collective agreements with the government for members working at the three hospitals.

In a statement sent to the media this afternoon, UĦM reiterated its objections to the Vitals Global Healthcare deals, and said it would be holding off striking any agreements with the firm until suspicions were cleared up. 

Health committee to discuss hospital deals

Parliament's health committee is to discuss the hospital deal, Labour MP and committee chairman Etienne Grech informed the media today. 

Dr Grech forwarded a copy of an email he sent to shadow health minister Claudette Buttigieg last Tuesday, in which he informed her that he would be convening the committee to discuss the deals, as she had requested in a letter dated November 9. 

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