Former Mount Carmel CEO Clifton Grima would not comment on the pitiful state of the mental health hospital, claiming he had not yet seen the Times of Malta report.

The report yesterday said that several patients are to be relocated from the hospital after architects declared some wards as being unsafe and ordered their immediate closure.

Photos from inside the hospital show metal support jacks holding beams in place in wards that are still in use.

Dr Grima, who served as CEO of the hospital between 2013 and last year, insisted that during his time there, refurbishment works had been carried out in a number of wards.

Asked whether he had ever flagged such problems to the government during his time as CEO, Dr Grima insisted that “work had been carried out then and I am sure it is still being carried out”. Dr Grima is now Parliamentary Secretary in the Education Ministry. 

READ: Corrective action at Mount Carmel Hospital 'long overdue'

He also pointed out that reports by the Commissioner of Mental Health have been more positive in recent years. His view starkly contrast the comments made by Commissioner John Cachia who insisted yesterday that corrective action at Mount Carmel Hospital is long overdue.

Dr Cachia also said that the recent findings by the architects seem to confirm what his office had been repeatedly stressing in its reports, conferences, meetings with management, media interventions and parliamentary hearings.

One of the wards at Mount Carmel Hospital.