The oncology centre being built adjacent to Mater Dei Hospital will cost €6 million less than the projected €60 million, Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia said yesterday.
The Government will be investing an additional €13 million in a linear accelerator and additional radiotherapy bunkers, he said.
The centre will also have 105 beds, more than the 96 originally planned, and options are being considered to increase the number of parking spaces around the building.
Touring the construction site with Parliamentary Secretary for EU funds Ian Borg, Dr Farrugia said the inherited project, towards which the EU will be contributing €44 million, had fallen four months behind schedule after a tender was cancelled and re-issued.
It was now three months behind but would still be completed by the target date of the second quarter of next year, the minister promised.
Questioned about the benefits of EU funding, Dr Farrugia said he had voted in favour of Malta joining the EU in the referendum 10 years ago, and was proud to be Maltese and European.
He said Boffa Hospital’s solid tumour unit and Mater Dei’s paediatric oncology ward and haematology department would be moving to the oncology centre.
The challenge was to find an adequate place there for Boffa’s dermatology department as well as the necessary 96 professionals – radiographers, doctors, nurses and specialised pharmacists – for the centre.
In the meantime, the Government has managed to secure an ESF fund of €930,000 to train six health professionals abroad as medical physicists.
Dr Farrugia said the previous government had drawn up a €2.5 million national cancer plan, which included screening, protection and treatment, but had allocated only €800,000 to it.
The Government was trying to make up the shortfall because it involved, among others, training radiographers.
Dr Borg, who was ending his tour of places benefiting from EU funds, said 53 projects costing some €590 million were behind schedule and about €190 million in EU funds risked being lost.
His secretariat, in collaboration with the ministries, was working to reach implementation targets so they would not lose any funds. These projects include works on December 13 Road in Marsa.