Gozitans are better off with the Gozo hospital run by Vitals, Health Minister Chris Fearne said this afternoon. 

He was reacting to comments by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who yesterday criticised the government for handing over the hospital to Vitals. Dr Busuttil promised that under a PN government, the hospital would be brought back into government hands.

 

Mr Fearne said the Opposition leader wanted to turn back the clock in the health sector. 

He said that the government had big plans for the health sector in Gozo, unlike Dr Busuttil who wanted to take patients back to a time when resources at the hospital were limited and service offered was an inferior one.

“In 2013, this government found a hospital that was worse than those found in third world countries,” Mr Fearne said, holding up photos of the state of the hospital at the time.

The bathrooms were in a disgusting state, he went on, pointing out also that basic equipment was “full of rust”. 

Thanks to the arrangements made by the government with Vitals, the old hospital was being replaced by a new one of 350 beds, with new operating theatres, a bigger hyperbaric unit, a new pharmacy, new ITU and CCU, a PET scanner, a new imaging department and an air ambulance. The service would remain free for Gozitans.

Gozo would also have a medical school run by Barts which would yield €4m annually to the economy. 

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