Updated at 7.45pm with Mr Fearne and Mr Falzon denial

Karin Grech Hospital is to admit patients from Mater Dei Hospital to help the public health system cope with higher demand during the cold winter period, hospital operator Vitals Global Healthcare has said.

But the MAM doctors' union said only 10 extra beds were being added at Karin Grech, with no new investment.

"Following discussions with the Ministry for Health, Mater Dei officials and other stakeholders, and a thorough assessment of all resources available, it was decided that Karin Grech Hospital  would step in and extend its services to more patients to meet the current demand," said VGH Karin Grech Hospital CEO Stephen Zammit. 

Vitals Global Healthcare was granted a 30-year lease to run Karin Grech, Gozo General and St Luke's hospitals last year, with the deal mired in political controversy.

The company has said it is currently working to recruit additional nurses and carers to cope with growing demands.

In a reaction the MAM doctors' union said that according to its sources there will be two extra beds crammed into five of the larger wards to give a total extra 10 bed capacity.

"There are indeed no new wards and there has been no investment to date in the capacity or infrastructure of Karin Grech Hospital despite the additional €4 million provided by the government.

"These extra beds have been added during every winter for the last few years, and are regularly reversed at the end of winter.

"With a daily intake to around 70 patients per day,at Mater Dei, the impact of this measure will be minimal."

In a separate statement, the Nationalist Party also observed that despite the €4m given to Vitals, nothing had changed, and what was taking place now had taken place before.No progress had been made because over the past few years Health Ministers Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne had been focused on selling the public hospitals, shadow minister Claudette Buttigieg said. 

Those deals had a strong whiff of corruption, not least because they were signed two days before the Panama secret companies were opened, she observed.  

Ms Buttigieg asked whether it was true that the Mater Dei Hospital CEO Ivan Falzon had jumped ship and resigned.

When contacted, both Mr Fearne and Mr Falzon categorically denied the resignation claim.

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