Opposition MP calls for clarity over Bart’s medical school in Gozo

Opposition MP Frederick Azzopardi has called on the government to release more details about its plans for the Bart’s Medical School that is set to open its doors within the Gozo General Hospital.

Speaking in his parliamentary adjournment, Azzopardi warned that staff at the GGH are still very much in the dark and that the medical school project is shrouded with conflicting information.

“A lot has been said about this project but scant information has been released,” Galea said.

“At the end of 2014, it was reported that the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Queen Mary University to open a prestigious medical school in Gozo and a government spokesperson was quoted as saying that it will raise the standards of the Gozo General Hospital,” the MP recounted. “However, a spokesperson for the Queen Mary University said that the Memorandum of Understanding was to set up an educational institution in Gozo that will focus on health sciences, and not a medical school. There’s a huge difference between a medical school and a centre for health sciences.”

He pointed out that the Opposition had raised a number of parliamentary questions about the project to Health Minister Konrad Mizzi, such as where the school’s teachers will be recruited from, and whether the government had consulted with the University of Malta beforehand.

“The government had simply responded that the MOU was intended as a collaboration between themselves and Queen Mary for the setting up of an institution of health sciences in Gozo. The Opposition then asked the government to table the agreement in Parliament, but the government said that it was not appropriate to publish it at the time. However, it later said that the information couldn’t be published at all because it was commercially sensitive.”

Azzopardi questioned where the funds for the project will come from

“First, the government said that the project will be published by an English university, then Queen Mary said that their capital injunction will be minimum,” he said.  

“While I am fully in favour of any development that will help the Gozo Hospital out, whenever the government announces large agreements, they are usually shrouded in secrecy and smell of corruption.”

Azzopardi also called on the government to come clean over whether it plans to privitise the Gozo General Hosptial or not.

“When asked whether it will be privitised, Konrad Mizzi simply said that the government is committed to improving healthcare while keeping it free,” Galea said. “Why all this ambiguity? Gozo hospital staff deserve to know whether their workplace will be privitised or not.”