The developers of a specialised new hospital at Smart City have not yet applied for an operating licence and the land has yet to be purchased.
Sources close to the project told the Times of Malta that it had fallen behind schedule and it was not clear when the hospital would start functioning. When the project was officially launched by the Prime Minster and the then energy and health minister Konrad Mizzi last year at Castille, the developers had given 2017 as the opening date. This has now been postponed to “late 2018”.
A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry told this newspaper that “to date, the Directorate for Healthcare standards did not receive any application to operate a hospital at Smart City, and so no licence has been issued in this respect”.
She said the hospital would require a fully fledged licence and had to follow a thorough process to ensure it could function.
According to the ministry, any application for a new hospital needs to be analysed. Plans of the premises, planning authority permits, full details of the applicants and information on the company behind the development had also to be submitted. “Once this happens an inspection team assesses the application and conductsthe necessary verification,” the spokeswoman said.
Asked whether the government had made any informal arrangements with the company that would run the private hospital to procure services in a form of public-private arrangement, the spokeswoman said no such plans existed.
Making it clear the government had nothing to do with this hospital as it was “a private project”, she said no commitments to acquire hospital services were made.
This was also confirmed to the Times of Malta by a spokesman of Synesis Ltd, the owners of the project. “The hospital is a totally private project and has no association with the government,” the spokesman said.
“There is no agreement with the government to buy any services from the private hospital.”
Asked why the development application was filed by Anthony Tabone, Smart City’s CEO and not by his company, the spokesman said “Synesis Ltd is buying the land from Smart City Malta and has a promise of sale agreement in place.
“This is why Mr Tabone filed the application, as Smart City Malta is still the rightful owner of the same land,” he said.
The hospital project was recently mentioned by the Italian media due to links with Rome’s Istituto Dermatologico Italiano (IDI). In 2012, after repeatedly failing to pay its staff, IDI, owned by a Church order, had to be bailed out by the Vatican after some €800 million in State subsidies disappeared.
The name of Giovanni Rusciano, the main consultant of Synesis Ltd and the Maltese project, featured several times in the findings of an inquiry conducted by the Procura di Roma about IDI. A judge will decide whether Mr Rusciano will face charges.
Asked to state who will be financing the project, the Synesis spokesman said the money would come “through project financing”.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com