interview

The medical entrepreneur

Nowadays, the Nationalist parliamentarian-turned-medical businessman, Josie Muscat, is more interested in fund-raising than fighting freedom fighters, as RAMONA DEPARES finds out

Josie Muscat is a name that is linked to different spheres of life, whether we’re talking of private hospitals, voluntary services or even politics. A down-to-earth, straight-talking man, Dr Muscat is best known on the health front for introducing treatments that were innovative, even daring, on the island. And as for politics, although for a time you couldn’t mention the name Josie without thinking of the nationalist party, the medic did not hesitate to go against party lines and meet with il-Perit Mintoff in the turbulent eighties when he felt the occasion demanded.

Today Dr Muscat no longer graces the benches at the House and rather than political shenanigans his name conjures up that of the Eden Foundation as well as St James Hospital, both of which are his babies.

I met the doctor at the hospital in Zabbar, in between scheduled medical appointments, and immediately asked him the question everyone is longing to know the answer to. What happened to his plans for a new hospital in the South, which were announced to the public quite a while ago? The plans, it appears, are still lingering in the power corridors of the Planning Authority together with the initial permits.

"It is a pity that the authorities talk of much-needed investment opportunities and then a project like this is left wasting away because of a formality," the doctor explained.

"This hospital has grown too much to contain all the medical and business opportunities it generates: to take some of the pressure off, we’ve opened satellites in various other localities. Two new outlets are opening tomorrow, one in Attard (called Transforma, which for the first time in local history will offer patients the now-famous penile enlargement procedure) and another in Sliema (dedicated to eye-care and offering the avant-garde Lasik procedure) but the need for new investment remains. From the start, we intended to have a good hospital in the South, one where the focus would be more on a warm and family-like atmosphere rather than on size. As regards the exact location, I can only say it will be in the South."

Why the South? At my question, Dr Muscat – almost indignantly, one can say – told me that the southern part of the island did not deserve only the ugly, dirty things such as the Freeport or the Power Station. The residents, he said, deserved a high standard hospital, offering professional services. But what is keeping these plans from coming to fruition?

"As I said, the permits still have to be approved. Because the approval has been long coming, the hospital has lost a couple of very lucrative projects. We’ve had some foreign companies approach us with the aim of launching a joint venture but because of our present size we had to refuse the projects. The nature of the venture required a bigger concern, one that could have been satisfied with the launch of the new hospital," he said.

Almost hesitantly, he then told me that such opportunities were lost forever because other countries welcomed both foreign and local investment with open arms. The authorities, he explained, did everything in their power to facilitate the putting in action of business ventures.

"It is a great pity because nonetheless I firmly believe in the need to have a Planning Authority. In the light of certain decisions regarding land which was taken by the government prior to the setting up of the Authority, it’s a very good concept. The mistake was in granting it complete autonomy, there is no government authority which can compel it to make a rapid decision and facilitate investment projects," he continued.

Another bone of contention with the doctor is the fact that the Authority gives potential investors the impression that it does not care about projects which will create business. Although this might not be accurate, he said, the impression is still there. How many projects were abandoned after problems were encountered with the granting of permits? He asked the question passionately, not rhetorically at all. I asked him whether this meant that the new hospital project would have to be abandoned. His denial was immediate.

"Of course not. The new hospital will be a very good one. Then this place (referring to the Zabbar branch) can be converted into an outpatient centre- cum-old people’s home. There are not enough homes in this area, only one in Zejtun and another in Birgu."

I took the opportunity to ask whether he believes the government should provide more community services to those who need them, such as old and disabled people. Dr Muscat agreed, but with caution.

"It’s all very well to say that the government should do everything to keep people, including old people and the disabled, within the community. That is obviously an ideal situation. But one has to look at the practicality of it all. Having a number of de-centralised homes will require more capital, it will cost more to run and set up than one single home would. Where will these funds come from?" he asked, a note of concern in his voice.

Something else the medic believes in is that the government should use existing funds to quantitatively help as many people as possible. As an example of how things should not be done, he mentions the recently opened old people’s home in Birgu, saying that some Lm2 million were spent to accommodate a total of 60 people.

"We should not concentrate on setting up five-star public services for the few. It’s better to have a three-star home which accommodates three hundred old people, than a more luxurious one that accommodates less. When it comes to disabled people, the government should take care it doesn’t repeat the same mistakes it did with the old people," he emphasised.

I asked him whether he encountered similar funding problems in his work with the Eden Foundation and whether the amount of charities that have mushroomed over the island and the competitiveness have aggravated the problem.

"The different charities are all very valid, they are all dedicated to different problems such as the homeless, the disabled, single parents and so forth. One cannot complain about that. It is when one cause sprouts offshoots that the problems start. Offshoots are usually born when a group within the organisation has a disagreement with the main body. Or else when a sub-group demands something that the organisation cannot concede. This results in an offshoot organisation that is pleading the same cause as the main one and that is demanding more money from the public. The resources are wasted when they’re spread too thinly," Dr Muscat explained.

Another bone of contention is regulation of voluntary services. The doctor believes that regulation and accountability are far from satisfactory: only the charities which choose to be registered are obliged to publish accounts and even then these are not vetted.

"The Eden Foundation has agreements with the ETC and the Education Department and the contract specifies that they can vet both our work and our finances. This is as it should be: it is not fair to demand money from the people and then not tell them how that money is being used. Publishing the accounts is not even enough – the accounts should then be audited independently. At present there is no system of compulsory vetting and this works against all voluntary organisations, it diminishes their credibility. An honest organisation should not be scared of being accountable," his argument runs.

In defence of voluntary organisations, he says that much of the funds they raise are wasted on expenses such as National Insurance payments for the employees. He insists that such organisations should be given all possible help when it comes to phone and utility bills and even NI payments.

"At Eden Foundation we pay an awesome amount of NI contributions. The Lm1.50 cost of living increase that will be mandatory after this year’s budget will alone cost us some additional Lm15,000 in NI contributions. We’ve been unfairly criticised in the past, there were rumours that we pay exorbitant salaries to our workers and that that is where the money goes. This is untrue, the wages we offer are only marginally higher than that of government workers but the service and commitment our employees give are much higher. And yet, we have to demand more and more money from the people for expenses which could be waived at least partially. It’s surely in a good cause," he said.

I turned the subject to politics, taking him back to the time when he advocated the use of violence to fight those who threatened the country’s freedom with violent means, the Fight Freedom Fighters group.

"FFF is so passé, there is no need to resurrect those times, fortunately, may I add," he answered. "They were horrible times indeed but now they are behind us.

"I’m still an FFF person, only now it stand for Funds For Foundation," he joked.

I asked him whether he would consider contesting the elections again. His reply was that one can ‘never say never’ but that the more St James Hospital grew, the less time he had for politics.

"I still love politics and if the party needed a helping hand I’d be the first to offer it," he said. "But to involve myself completely, I don’t know if I have the time for that. I am honestly too busy with the foundation and the hospital.

"I wouldn’t describe it as being up to my eyes in work – by now it has definitely reached the top of my head."