A facility in St Paul's Bay which had been officially described as a hospital for Covid-19 patients from old people's homes in licensed as a long term care facility, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in reply to a parliamentary question on Monday.

The minister was replying to a question by Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg about the Good Samaritan facility. Buttigieg observed that the minister himself had described the facility as a hospital when he spoke during the Budget debate in the House on November 2. 

In his reply, Fearne said the licence conditions laid down that nursing and medical staff have to be present round the clock. The conditions also extablish procedures to safeguard the health of patients at a higher level than available at old people's homes. 

On November 27, the hospital said in a statement to Times of Malta that it had been contracted by the government along with other facilities to isolate elderly patients who test positive for Covid-19 in care homes and Mater Dei and care for them to minimise the risk of contagion.

Until quite recently, positive patients were being left in close proximity with healthy elderly residents in care homes, resulting in undesired consequences, it pointed out.

It said it was licensed to function as a hospital, according to article 98 of the Medical and Kindred Professions Ordinance, adding that to qualify, it was inspected on various occasions by the relevant health and social care standards authorities, following strict guidelines as regards equipment, staffing, protocols and operating practices among others.

It said daily ward rounds are manned by dedicated consultant geriatricians, doctors, nurses and carers, who have never experienced any shortage of monitoring and supporting equipment, the hospital said.

When patients do require more complex care, such as intensive therapy, they are promptly transferred to Mater Dei, the facility said, adding that it never purported to offer critical care services.