Government Health Care And Malta Steward In Discussions About Hospital Concession Expectations
The Maltese government and Steward Health Care are in discussions on the requirements and expectations of the controversial concession to manage three state hospitals.
Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne confirmed this detail following a parliamentary question from Gozitan Deputy Chris Said on the project master plan for the Gozo General Hospital.
Pressure has begun to weigh on Steward Health Care’s dealership, which has faced allegations of corruption and management since it was first handed over to Vitals Global Healthcare a few years ago. Even Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said the deal just isn’t working.
VGH was first awarded a controversial concession to Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital. Mizzi was the minister responsible for the project.
It was revealed that the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding months before a call for proposals was even announced.
The company was forced to sell its operations to Steward Health Care just 21 months after starting amid a growing financial debt of € 36 million by the end of 2017. It reported that its Chief Executive, Ram Tumuluri, still left with € 5 million. bonus.
An unrepaired contract revealed that taxpayers were paying VGH around € 188,000 a day (€ 70 million a year) to provide hospital beds to the state, € 1.2 million a year for the medical school of ‘Barts and another € 1 million for a helicopter. service.
Steward Healthcare introduced to replace them. They were granted certain assurances by the government, namely by former minister Konrad Mizzi and former prime minister Joseph Muscat when they were brought in to save the failed concession.
This included a huge Purchase of € 100 million if the concession is revoked and a secret bank guarantee of € 8 million (which has since been waived).
The deal created major loopholes in operations – with Steward’s staff being paid less than their state counterparts for doing the exact same job. Meanwhile, the government continues to spend millions on a service that is not much different from that of Malta.
Should the agreement be scrapped?