The kitchen at St Vincent de Paul, which will be rebuilt. Photo: Paul Spiteri LucasThe government will rebuild the kitchen at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly after it was certified as substandard by the health authorities.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyne Caruana yesterday said she took the decision after an inspection in May by the environmental health directorate, which found the kitchen to be in an “appalling state”.
She said this was not the first report of its kind as the health directorate spoke of “decades of neglect”.
“I asked the Institute of Tourism Studies to carry out its own inspection and give me recommendations. The conclusions of both reports tallied and the recommendations were either to adopt a piecemeal approach to change or pull down the whole place and build it from scratch,” she added.
Her decision, approved by Cabinet, was to go for a total revamp of the kitchen that feeds more than 1,300 residents at the State’s largest elderly home.
As an interim measure Dr Caruana sought approval from the contracts committee to issue a direct order to Health Care Services, the same contractor that supplies food to Mater Dei Hospital patients.
I could not stand idle and so took the decision I believe is best
“The direct order will be in force until a tender for food provision is issued and adjudicated,” she said. The contractor will be following the menu that was only recently updated and which according to Dr Caruana, residents were happy with.
She insisted the state of the kitchen had long been flagged as problematic but other priorities came in the way, noting that the last major refurbishment happened some 20 years ago.
“I could not stand idle with such a report in front of me and took the decision which I believe is best,” she said.
The Gozitan MP was appointed parliamentary secretary in March, replacing fellow Gozitan Franco Mercieca, who had asked to be relieved from Cabinet in March’s reshuffle.