Government insists all payments to Vitals according to contract

The reaction comes following media reports that payments to Vitals Global Healthcare were doubled days before it was announced that Vitals would be transferring the three hospitals they agreed to run to Steward Health Care

VGH was granted a 30-year concession to run Karin Grech, St Luke's and Gozo General Hospital
VGH was granted a 30-year concession to run Karin Grech, St Luke's and Gozo General Hospital

The government, through the Health Ministry, has rejected media reports “implying” that the government affected extra payments to Vitals Global Healthcare, days before it was announced that the company would be selling on the concession it was granted by the government for the running of three of Malta’s public hospitals to Steward Health Care

“The Department of Health states that all payments made by the Government to Vitals Global Healthcare during 2016 and 2017 were made as stipulated in the contractual terms signed by both parties and that no extra payments have been made as implied in the published article,” read a statement by the ministry.

The report, published in the Times of Malta this morning, stated that days before the surprise announcement, the Health Ministry obtained parliamentary approval to pay VGH an extra €18 million for 2017, “over an above” the €16.5 million already paid during the year.

It is claimed that two line items in the Health Ministry vote were amended and increased, in order to give the hospitals’ operators more funds.

The approval was granted in a day long parliamentary session the day before parliament broke off for Christmas recess.