Steward Healthcare will be receiving an additional €20 million from taxpayers next year to operate the Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals, despite the private company not delivering on most of its contractual obligations, the PN said on Friday.
The spike in expenditure on the state hospital concessions was first flagged by Times of Malta on Tuesday.
PN MPs Stephen Spiteri and Adrian Delia told a press conference that according to the government's budget for next year, Steward will receive €9.3 million for Karin Grech and €10.4 million for the Gozo General Hospital.
"The government had pledged to construct a new, state-of-the-art hospital equipped with some 200 to 250 acute care beds, which would be connected to the current Gozo hospital," Delia said while reading from the contract.
"Where is this new hospital,? Why are we giving them more money when they have not even laid one stone of the new hospital?"
Delia added that Steward had promised to construct a rehabilitation centre in St Luke's and to invest in refurbishment and medical equipment. However, none of these promises ever materialised.
"This week's budget not only failed to act on this issue but confirmed that the Maltese people are being robbed of their money," Delia said.
Spiteri meanwhile reiterated that the additional €20 million was over and above the €2.1 billion deal that Stewards had inherited from Vitals to operate the hospitals for 30 years.
"The hospitals should be returned to the state and run by the government of the day," he said.
"We're wasting a lot of money which we could spend on medicines, mental health and cancer therapy, for example."
40 per cent increase in one year
According to the budget estimates for 2022, Steward Healthcare will be getting €69 million to run the Gozo and Karin Grech hospitals next year - a 40 per cent increase in a single year.
Asked about this on Tuesday, Fearne said the government is investing in the people of Gozo and that was why more funds had been allocated. He denied there had been any changes to the concession agreement.
“There have been no new arrangements to the concession. The increase is a result of more investment in the health sector,” he said.
Vitals Global Healthcare was granted a €2billion concession to run the hospitals in 2015. Eventually, the private company backed out and sold the concession to Steward.
The 40 per cen increase in funds has raised questions over whether it has anything to do with ongoing discussions between the government and Steward over the concession.
On Friday, Fearne told the Malta Independent that discussions over the concession have "not yet concluded but they are close."