Extension of Gozo hospital concession up to government – health ministry

The health ministry has refuted reports that the 30-year concession of the Gozo General Hospital could be unilaterally extended by Vitals Global Healthcare for an additional 69 years.

The ministry was reacting to a report by the Sunday Times of Malta which claimed that the Gozo General Hospital, including all its grounds and surrounding roads, was effectively privatised for 99 years and not just 30. Citing unpublished documents, the newspaper claimed that the contract between the government and Vitals global Healthcare Assets Limited contained a clause whereby the latter had a unilateral right to extend its emphyteutical grant by a further “single and additional term of sixty-nine years.”

The report was subsequently picked up by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who on Sunday, slammed the government for lying after having said that the hospital would be leased for 30 years, and not 99 years.

However, in a statement this afternoon, the health ministry said the report, as well as Simon Busuttil’s comments, was rife with inaccuracies. It insisted that the concession of the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and the Karin Grech Hospital is that of 30 years.

“In the case of the Gozo General Hospital and the Karin Grech Hospital, it would be up to the government to extend the contract after the 30-year period has elapsed. Vitals Global Healthcare can only extend the title over of St Luke’s Hospital, which would be renovated mostly for medical tourism,” it said.

The ministry said the claim that the Gozo hospital had been handed over for 99 years was not correct but it said, this was a misinterpretation of the notarial Act. Moreover, the ministry slammed Busuttil for using wrong facts to cast doubts on the “largest investment which Malta’s health sector has seen.”