New paediatric and mental hospitals, as well as a new outpatient’s block with a five-storey underground car park, are among the government’s projects planned for the grounds of Mater Dei Hospital.

The government also plans to refurbish five health centres in the next 18 months: Cospicua, Birkirkara, Qormi, Floriana and Gżira. This will follow the upgrade of the Mosta and Rabat health centres and new ones planned for Kirkop and Paola.

The details were given by Health Minister Chris Fearne in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta.

Mr Fearne said the government was looking to tap funds from the European Fund for Strategic Investment to build the mental hospital and to also refurbish Mount Carmel Hospital.

“We are also looking to build a mother and child hospital on the grounds of Mater Dei. We are probably the only country in Europe without a proper paediatric hospital,” he said.

The plan is to build it above the new wards near the Emergency Department and to have it run entirely by Mater Dei.

The funding model being looked at is called PFI (Private Funding Initiative), where the building is constructed by a private contractor and paid for over a number of years instead of as a lump sum. A new underground car park is planned for the site of the old helipad with an overlying outpatients’ block. The car park will be run as a concession by a private company.

Meanwhile, tenders for the design and build of the Kirkop health centre are being adjudicated. “It will be up and running by this time next year. It will cost nearly €1 million and will be run completely by the government,” he said.

During the interview, Mr Fearne discusses his political aspirations and dispels any suggestion of a rift between him and his main electoral opponent, Konrad Mizzi.

Read the full interview with Chris Fearne in The Sunday Times of Malta.