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Karl Schembri
Everything is going according to plan so that the Prime Minister will be able to open the Lm250 million Mater Dei Hospital on his birthday next year.
The construction is effectively ready and workers are now focusing on the nuts and bolts that will turn this massive building site into a modern hospital.
It will have 25 operating theatres and 825 beds, fully air conditioned, even the 1.4km of corridors, so just in case we still end up with beds clogging the hallways patients could still enjoy the cool air.
Two Maltese balconies greet visitors in the massive main lobby, “bringing a touch of tradition” according to The Times. One would almost expect to see a granny hiding behind a persjana on one of the balconies spying on the people being rushed to emergency.
“Five months ago it was just shell,” proclaimed Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech as he took journalists on a site visit last Friday around the hospital that will have taken some 16 years to complete. Health Minister Louis Deguara was nowhere to be seen. Of course he has nothing to do with a new hospital.
Now Lm250 million is a very costly present, and the really shocking costs have yet to be figured out, so forget about the cake.
The costs to migrate from St Luke’s to Tal-Qroqq are still unknown, a new plan is still being drawn up after all the deadlines in the original one commissioned years ago have been missed.
Fenech says the running costs at Mater Dei shouldn’t be much higher than costs at St Luke’s, although he says air conditioning should raise costs a little bit.
There are tenders that have yet to be concluded, such as the IT and catering contracts, and new work practices have yet to be worked out with health care professionals, who in contrast with Fenech’s optimism have so far slammed the government for keeping them in dark about the grand move in a year’s time.
“When the hospital opens the capital expenditure will end,” he said, as if it didn’t cost enough to build.
Assuming the health minister will eliminate overcrowding and social cases, patients should be happier to recover, or die for that matter, here, in this hospital named after the mother of God, but they would rather remain oblivious of the real costs to run this site as big as 14 full-size football pitches. It would make the heart monitoring machines blip like a bank alarm in a hold up.
But that’s something not to worry about now. Promising that all services here will be offered for free, Fenech insisted that medical services are not his remit. Public coffers are, but then again, it’s too early to fret about that now. As if you write the price on the birthday present.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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