While welcoming the “interesting” government plans for a €200 million investment as part of a radical shake-up of the healthcare system, private operators have described the plans as “sketchy”.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister announced the setting up of an overseas campus at Gozo General Hospital which will be run by the prestigious UK-based Barts medical school.
Concurrently, the government will bring in a private investor to develop medical hubs at the Gozo hospital and at the former St Luke’s Hospital.
A request for proposals is set to be issued in the coming days for investors interested in financing the capital expenditure to set up these hubs and run them.
In return they would get paid by the government for the beds and services they would be offering, as well as having revenue from foreign patients using their facilities. Asked for his reaction to these plans, Saint James Hospital chairman Josie Muscat yesterday described them as “interesting”. However, he said he could not give his assessment as details were “very sketchy”.
His views were echoed by former parliamentary secretary Louis Buhagiar who runs St Thomas Hospital in Qormi.
“Somebody like me who is interested in this subject would need to learn more about the government’s proposal but the concept is nevertheless very interesting,” he said.
The objectives could be seen as too ambitious but if the plan was to succeed it would mean a huge leap for the health sector in Malta, he added.
On his part, the owner of the former St Philip’s Hospital, Frank Portelli, said that it would be a huge pity if such plan were to be “torpedoed”.
He noted that attempts by previous PN-led governments to lure the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the St George’s College had faced this fate and had failed to materialise.
Dr Portelli remarked that the presence of prestigious names in the medical field would boost both the level of treatment in Malta as well as the academic credentials of local medical schools.
Other possible benefits cited by Dr Portelli were a wider range of treatments for patients on the sister island who would no longer need to be transferred to Malta.
He also welcomed plans for St Luke’s, saying that this former hospital had huge potential possibly as a rehabilitation centre for the elderly, and for day care surgery.
As for the financial viability, Dr Portelli said that Malta’s close proximity to North Africa could be crucial to lure wealthy patients from this part of the world. However, Gozo’s accessibility would need to improve, possibly with an airstrip.
During the last PN-led administration, the government pulled out of an eight-year lease agreement with St Philip’s Hospital at the very last moment.
That deal would have paved the way for the conversion of the private 100-bed hospital into a rehabilitation facility. The aim was to alleviate some of the load from Mater Dei Hospital.