Workers at Saint James Hospital in Sliema will be retained with their current conditions when new investors take over, according to Josie Muscat.
But the doctor and former MP, who founded the Saint James Hospital group in 1984, was yesterday reluctant to lift the lid on the sale of the Sliema facility to US investors.
“At this stage we can release no information until the deal is finalised, hopefully in the coming days,” Dr Muscat said.
Dr Muscat bought the 80-bed Capua Hospital in Sliema from entrepreneur Anġlu Xuereb in 2002 for an undisclosed sum.
It was renamed Saint James (Capua) Hospital and offered various services ranging from surgical interventions to in-vitro fertilisation. The hospital employs around 230 people.
At this stage we can release no information until the deal is finalised, hopefully in the coming days
Asked about the future of these workers, Dr Muscat said the deal would ensure employees will be retained “with the same conditions”.
The latest set of accounts filed at the Registry of Companies for Saint James (Capua) Hospital Ltd, pertaining to 2012, show that the hospital made €13.3 million in revenue but registered a loss of €341,804 for the year. In the previous year it had registered a profit of almost half-a-million euros. The accounts also show the Sliema hospital having assets worth €26.6 million and liabilities of €18 million.
Dr Muscat confirmed that the sale will also include the name Saint James.
“Our other medical facilities in Żabbar, Tarxien, Żebbuġ and Burmarrad – which are not part of the deal – will be renamed Santa Maria,” he said. Plans for the construction of a new hospital in Bulebel to replace the Żabbar facility will remain on the table, he added.
The Maltese hospital group obtained a planning permit last January for a 61-bed hospital in the outskirts of Żejtun and Tarxien. The hospital is expected to employ 156 full-timers and 33 part-timers.
“The construction of the Bulebel hospital is still on the table... and how,” Dr Muscat said, adding it will be called Santa Maria Hospital.
In a statement on Wednesday, Saint James Hospital International, run by Dr Muscat’s son, and which operates the groups’ hospitals in Libya and Hungary, clarified that it was a separate entity from the company that ran the Malta operations.
The foreign hospitals are not part of the deal with US investors, which was negotiated by Dr Muscat.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com