Just five years after opening its doors, Malta’s general hospital is to be expanded with two new medical wards.
Around €8.4 million will be channelled towards the project expected to be open by 2015, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday during a visit to the Planning and Priorities Co-ordination Division, the managing authority of EU funds in Santa Venera.
Sources close to the government told Times of Malta that preparations for the project started some 18 months ago with the intention to build a new floor over one of the existing blocks at Mater Dei, thus creating the space for two new wards.
“This is an expansion of Mater Dei. We will not be building an extra floor over all the hospital but only on one block. The project is expected to create an additional 68 beds for patients and is expected to be ready in two years time,” the sources said.
Apart from the €8.4 million of EU funds to be used for this new project, the government is expected to come up with €2 million in additional funds from national coffers to cover the costs.
Since its inception, Mater Dei has been faced with claims of bed shortages, which at times have forced the hospital to treat some patients in corridors rather than proper wards.
The lack of space is further restricted by social cases of people who occupy beds usually used for medical interventions.
During his visit, Dr Muscat lauded the efforts of the civil servants administering EU funds. He claimed that upon taking office, there was the possibility that Malta would lose some €200 million of its allocation as these were not yet committed.
However, he said that through the efforts of the managing authorities and “without any need of political intervention”, no EU funds will be lost.
Dr Muscat said the government is now preparing the technical background for the allocation of new EU funds for the 2014-2020 period and is expected to conclude discussions with the European Commission by June.
For the coming seven-year budgetary period, the previous government had negotiated a financial package of over a billion euros in EU funds.