Health Minister Chris Fearne on Wednesday afternoon acknowledged that work carried out by Vitals had not progressed at an acceptable rate and said that the situation improved once Steward Health Care took over the hospital privatisation deal. 

Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) was supposed to invest over €200 million in the Gozo, St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals however the company had pulled out of the deal in December 2017. The 30-year concession for the running of the three hospitals was then taken over by Steward, with Mr Fearne heralding the change as "the real deal".

"Everyone knows, there is no need to beat around the bush, that when we were working with the original partners, there was a time when we wanted things to progress faster, those partners have changed and now we are working closely with Steward Health Care," Mr Fearne insisted.   

New orthopedic ward

The minister was speaking at the opening of a ten-bed Orthopedic Ward at the Gozo General Hospital, which saw Steward investing some €158,000.  Last year, over a hundred hip and knee replacement surgeries were carried out at the Gozo Hospital. 

On the planned new Gozo hospital, Mr Fearne said that timelines would be made public by Steward in the coming weeks, insisting that work would commence soon.   

"We wanted the work on the anatomy centre to progress and then move on to the medical school. The building is ready and the plan is to have the furnishings and equipment installed in summer. Once this is completed, there are plans to have the new hospital at the start of 2020. Steward will publish timelines in the coming weeks," Mr Fearne went on. 

Health Minister Chris Fearne is introduced to staff at Gozo hospital.

Also speaking at the event, Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana said that unlike in the past, where patients were forced to get certain treatment in Malta because the Gozo hospital was not equipped to provide such care, people in Gozo were now not only getting treatment on the island but also getting care which is of high standards.   

"The government’s vision is a holistic one. The service offered here needs to be as good, if not better, than that of Malta," Dr Caruana went on. 

Ministers Fearne and Caruana tour the hospital.