In his letter ‘Private medicine’ (March 20), Eddy Privitera tries to confuse readers about the 30-year concession given to a private service provider to run three State hospitals by referring to Care Malta as an example of successful private-public partnership. Indeed, it is, precisely because it is based on a cooperative agreement between the government and a Maltese company.

Care Malta was originally entrusted with operating Zammit Clapp Hospital Residential Home under a public-private partnership scheme. It went on to develop into an excellent privately-owned company that now provides nursing and residential care for the elderly in a number of residence homes around the island.

People can choose to go to these residential homes at their own expense or apply for a government subsidy and wait to be admitted. This is where any similarity ends. The company behind this is of good reputation. It is a Maltese company, so its profit also benefits us. In the unlikely event of any irregularity, the company is accessible to audit.

As Privitera says in his letter, the main objective of all private companies is to make the highest possible profit. This is precisely the point. Handing control over three government hospitals and a sizeable part of our State healthcare to a foreign commercial company for 30 years will expose us to being systematically overcharged for three decades (or is it 99 years?) for provision of healthcare.

Paying foreigners to do what we could do ourselves at a lower price is irresponsible and can only be regarded as an abject failure of health policy. It will ultimately cost the taxpayer significantly more than if the three hospitals had been reformed and operated on government funds in the first place. It will also constitute a long-term, outward drain of our funds to another country.

The ultimate extra cost of such privatisations has been estimated to be as high as 40 per cent in the UK, which is now facing a crisis as a result of bankruptcy of one of its major outsourcing companies.

The nation’s health is not a marketable item. If this scandalous deal goes through, Maltese people needing State hospital care will be used as money-spinners for providing an income to shareholders of a foreign commercial company, at taxpayers’ expense.

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