Health Minister Chris Fearne on Wednesday committed to showing the Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister Stephen Spiteri the agreement between Steward Healthcare and Vitals Global Healthcare - as soon as it had been finalised.
Addressing concerns by Opposition MPs Chris Said and Godfrey Farrugia that Barts Medical School was growing increasingly frustrated at Vital’s failure to provide the promised facilities on time, he said that Barts had so much faith in the Maltese healthcare system that it would soon announce a second project in Malta.
He argued that this amount would be worth €40 million of today’s money, adjusted for inflation - for a state-of-the-art hospital in 2048
He was speaking in Parliament during a debate on the controversial transfer of the concession for three hospitals.
The Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defended a clause in the contract which specified that the government would have to pay €80 million if it decided not to renew the Gozo General Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital, and St Luke’s Hospital concession. However, he argued that this amount would be worth €40 million of today’s money, adjusted for inflation - for a state-of-the-art hospital in 2048.
Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, however, accused the government of deliberately engineering the deal with Vitals Global Healthcare “to fail, paying it €190,000 a day for “nothing at all’.
The government was currently paying Vitals the same amount that it used to spend on the three hospitals directly
Earlier during the debate, Opposition MP Simon Busuttil had argued that, according to the Prime Minister’s response to a parliamentary question he had posed, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and PM chief of staff Keith Schembri had been involved in the transfer of the concession agreement to Steward Healthcare.
Dr Mizzi denied reports that the concession was for a period of 99 years, saying that it was for 30 years - as had already been stated. He called the concession model adopted “game-changing,” and said that he envisioned it becoming a model for the remainder of Europe.
He also pointed out that the government was currently paying Vitals the same amount that it used to spend on the three hospitals directly, and that increases in the allocated budget would only come into effect once additional facilities were ready.