Opposition calls Vitals deal scandalous and should have been withdrawn

The Nationalist Party has labelled the Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) deal with a mysterious company “scandalous,” saying the contract should have been revoked when major shortcomings became evident.

The Opposition’s statement was made in a response to a Times of Malta report published yesterday, which revealed that Vitals Global Healthcare has not managed to keep up with all the major aims stipulated by its contact to run the three hospitals it was given.

Such aims included: contents of the hospitals including expensive medical equipment, which according to the report were sold to VGH for just €1 in March 2016. In return the private company was paid a €2 billion concession to run the three hospitals, Karen Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General, for 30 years.

The government had earlier published a redacted version of the contract.

The Nationalist Party called on the government to stop hiding and to answer questions, adding that “the scandalous sum of €1 was hidden from the Maltese people and blacked out when the government published the contract.”

According to the report, various other milestones have not been achieved including: building a medical college at the Gozo General Hospital to be used by Barts of the UK, which was meant to be completed by last July; the addition of beds at Karen Grech and St Luke’s, which were meant to have been running for the past 12 months; and the introduction of 80 additional rehabilitation beds at St Luke’s by last September.

The Times of Malta report also says the concession has now been sold on to a US company, signed between the government and VGH. VGH is an unknown health company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Another Times of Malta report published last week also revealed that the government knew of the Vitals sale talks three months ago. The government and VGH announced last week that the concession of the Maltese public hospital was sold to an American company called Steward Healthcare.