The Malta Medical Students’ Association said today that it has had a meeting with the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Chris Fearne, who addressed concerns it had about the new Bart’s Medical School and the existing medical school.

The association said it had been concerned about how the new medical school would affect teaching quality.

Mr Fearne told the association that Bart’s medical school would make only minimal use of Mater Dei Hospital, and this only in some sub-specialities scheduled in a way which would not impair teaching quality at the Malta Medical School.

Most of the teaching staff of the new medical school will be foreign lecturers from Queen Mary University.

The new medical school will open in September 2016, during which time the pre-clinical section of the course will commence. Until September 2018, these students will not need clinical rotations and there will therefore be enough time for the building of the new hospital and its promotion for medical tourism.

In the first two years the students at Bart’s will only make use of lecturing facilities for their preclinical years. They will not make use of Mater Dei if the construction targets are not adhered to.

In view of these assurances, the association said it welcomed the building of the new medical school. In the long run, it also hoped to see an increase the number of Foundation Programme posts made available for graduating doctors to work in Malta.

The government announced earlier this week that Bart's will build a new medical school in Gozo on the same grounds as a new Gozo hospital, which will have 125 beds allocated for medical tourism.

St Luke's Hospital will also be revamped and will have a wing of some 250 beds for medical tourism.