Former PN minister ‘unaware’ of faults with A&E concrete structure

Former Nationalist health minister Louis Galea has expressed surprise at news that the concrete structures at Mater Dei Hospital’s accident and emergency department are weak to the point that they cannot hold the weight of two planned medical wards.

A third set of tests carried out in the UK have confirmed that concrete used on certain pillars at the A&E was not strong enough, due to the use of material of inferior quality.

Galea, who was responsible for the health sector when the Skanska contract was signed in 1995, said the reports that emerged in the media were “news” to him.

The news was soon confirmed by the government and it has now announced that temporary structures will be put in place this week to solidify the columns.

“[The reports] are news to me and there were never any problems of a similar nature that were brought to my attention. The construction was regulated by a contract and there are legal provisions to provide the contractors and architects,” Galea told MaltaToday.

He insisted that responsibility should be shouldered by the contractors and architects as stipulated by the contracts.

Construction work on Mater Dei Hospital started in October 1995 and was completed in 2007 by the Swedish firm Skanska at a cost of close to €600 million.

The Labour government yesterday said it would be asking for responsibility to be shouldered, be it political, technical or commercial.

The Nationalist Party is however being very cautious in insisting that the onus is on the technical people who took the technical decisions during the construction of the state-of-the-art hospital.

“I think that political responsibility is about ensuring that obligations of contractors and architects are listed in the contracts and that one also ensures that these contractual obligations are carried out,” Galea said.

Asked whether he was aware of any loopholes that may emerge in a deeper examination of the contracts, Galea said Maltese laws on construction already provide for responsibility to be shouldered by contractors and architects: “Such matters are regulated by the same contracts.”

He went on to add that the original design of the hospital was changed in 1996, with the change in government. Under the Alfred Sant administration, the plans of the original design were changed, doubling the number of hospital beds.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Edvard Lind, Skanska’s head of media relations, said the company didn’t know much about the recent development, other than what was reported in the media.

“No one has contacted us and we know far too little to conduct any investigations of our own. Moreover, there were other parties involved and we don’t exactly know what the problems are and in which areas,” Lind said.

Board of inquiry to analyse criminal, civil liabilities

The government will be setting up an external board of inquiry to establish the facts and timeline of events.

The board will be analysing criminal and civil liabilities resulting from the new development as well as cooperating and passing on any relevant information to the Police. Technical experts will be appointed.

“This is part of the government’s work to establish the facts of what could have occurred in the past during the building of the Accident and Emergency section at Mater Dei Hospital,” the Ministry for Health said.

“The government will also be asking for responsibility to be shouldered, be it political, technical or commercial.”

A site survey of the Emergency Department and analysis of the whole hospital will be carried out and discussions are already underway to appoint a foreign company specialising in the sector.

The government said works to identify a new site are already underway as not to lose any EU funds allocated for the construction of new wards.

“The government will continue keeping both the public and unions informed of the situation. The security of patients and workers is of utmost priority and both Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne are committed to take responsible decisions based on information being collected.”

PN calls for parliamentary probe

The Nationalist Party has now called for a parliamentary probe, insisting that contractors and architects had to answer to the “allegations reported in the media and supported by the government”.

In a letter signed by MPs Claudio Grech and Michael Gonzi, the PN asked chairman and Labour MP Etienne Grech to urgently convene a meeting of the permanent health committee within parliament to verify the veracity of the allegations.

“We do not yet know whether there are problems with the structure itself or whether it simply cannot bear the weight of additional structures built over it,” the MPs said, adding that the accident and emergency departments were not originally designed to sustain the pressure of additional buildings built over them.
“This level of uncertainty can reduce the trust of the patients who require the services of these departments and create additional stress for the hospital workers.”

Talking to MaltaToday, Grech, the health shadow minister, said the serious allegations merited an urgent investigation by the health committee too, especially since an average of 350 patients visit the A&E department every day.

While insisting that every individual who was in one way or another involved in the construction of the hospital should appear before the committee, Grech said one had to first establish the facts before turning to political responsibility.

“It first must be established whether the A&E department was built to support additional floors or whether the structure itself is faulty. There are persons who designed and certified the building and there are those who took the legal responsibility of the buildings themselves.

“All facts must be established: people were paid to certify the building and now they must appear before the committee to explain these tests.”

Grech insisted that raising allegations or shedding doubts could create discomfort among patients and workers at Mater Dei.

“Even contractors have a responsibility to shoulder and I won’t reach any conclusions based on sound bites or a story that appears in a newspaper,” Grech said when asked who should shoulder political responsibility.

“Our political responsibility is to address these allegations and we now await for all facts to be established. But one cannot jump to conclusions without having heard all versions.”

Technical people must answer

In comments to the Times of Malta, former finance minister Tonio Fenech and former health minister Joe Cassar gave very contrasting comments on the matter.

While Fenech said he was not completely surprised by the news, Cassar said he was. Fenech argued that the structures were never designed to carry such loads and Skanska had refused to build beyond two additional floors for safety reasons. According to Fenech, it was for this reason that the helipad was not built on the hospital’s roof.

Cassar, on the other hand, said the results of the stress tests on the department’s columns surprised him since the project to construct additional wards was rolled out on his watch.

Asked why the Nationalist administration had rolled out the project if he was aware that the structures were never designed to carry such a load, Fenech said technical people should be answering the questions.

“I was appointed Minister in 2005, years after the building was constructed, particularly the section in question which was built in 1996 when I was not even in politics. Therefore, any questions related to the issue in discussion need to be addressed to the technical people who took the decisions during the planning and construction stages of the building,” Fenech said.

“The PN has asked for an official enquiry and also scrutiny by the Parliamentary Committee for Health, where we need to be sure that there is no risk for patients and to determine the facts of what decisions were taken and by whom. I stand by this position and look forward to see results.”