UHM, doctors: 'no agreements with Vitals will be finalised until Auditor General investigates contracts'

Parliament’s public accounts committee should investigate the contract signed between the government and Vitals Global Healthcare, the new private operators of the St Luke’s, Gozo and Karin Grech hospitals, according to the UHM Voice of the Workers and the Medical Association of Malta.

In a joint letter sent to the committee, UHM and MAM insisted that no agreements would be negotiated or finalised with Vitals until said investigation – and that launched by the Auditor General – are concluded.

Vitalis Healthcare Ltd is owned by Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd, which is in turn owned by Bluestone Situation 4 Ltd – registered as an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.

The two unions questioned where the money for the investment was coming from and who would benefit from Vitals’ Malta profits.

The UHM said it was imperative to eliminate all doubt and to fully establish the operator’s stability if the jobs and conditions of work of its members were to be guaranteed.

It said it was insulting of the government to expect the unions to sign multi-year agreements without knowing all the facts, especially with so much secrecy and mystery surrounding the government’s agreement with Vitals.