The Ministry of Health on Wednesday denied that Steward Healthcare are leaving Gozo, or Malta.
It was reacting to comments in parliament by Gozo shadow minister Chris Said that there were reports that Steward Healthcare could quit Gozo.
"Steward Healthcare will neither quit Gozo, nor Malta," the ministry said.
With regard to Dr Said's comments on the air ambulance service, the ministry said the inquiry report clearly stated that: “The procedures followed were in line with established normal practice and protocols. No difficulties were encountered during the transfer of the patient from Gozo General Hospital to Mater Dei Hospital. The patient was only transferred to MDH once the attending physician considered that it was safe to do so. The air ambulance helicopter was available when a decision was taken that the patient needed transfer to MDH.”
It said Dr Said had been handed the full report and he was politically dishonest to ignore it.
Barts campus completion postponed to next year
Meanwhile, Times of Malta reported on Wednesday that Barts medical school in Gozo will be getting a new laboratory in the coming days, but a new campus originally due to be completed in 2016 has been postponed to next year.
The government is refusing to disclose how many students have enrolled with the school, despite Prime Minister Joseph Muscat having said that Barts would have 300 trainees by its fifth year in operation.
The issue was raised in Parliament last week by Nationalist Party MP Chris Said in a question to Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.
Mr Bartolo did not divulge any information and instead referred to another reply given last March, when a similar request had been turned down on the grounds that the information was “commercially sensitive”.
Despite that claim, a Barts spokesman in London had no such issue earlier this year, when he said that, at the time, there were 40 students enrolled at the Gozo school. This newspaper submitted a fresh request for the most recent enrollment figures, but no reply was received from Barts by the time of writing.
The new facility being inaugurated in the coming days is an anatomy centre, comprising a laboratory and accommodation facilities for academic, technical and administrative staff.
Situated within the Gozo General Hospital, the centre is not part of the new campus still under construction, but rather an existing block previously earmarked for a child development centre. Plans for the latter had been announced in the final months of the Nationalist-led government in 2013. That project seems to have been shelved, prompting criticism from Dr Said, who has accused the government of giving priority to Barts over the provision of specialised medical services to Gozitan children.
A Health Ministry spokeswoman would not say whether such plans had been shelved.
As for the new campus, the ministry noted that in the coming weeks work on the interior of the structure would start, as the building in shell form was nearly completed.
“The campus will be ready by mid next year,” the spokeswoman said.
Announced in 2015, the project was originally meant to be operational by September 2016, but work has been dogged by delays, with the completion deadline postponed various times. Consequently, Barts was forced to use the Gozo sixth form in Victoria as temporary premises.