Patients at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital have been evacuated after "structural damage" was discovered during refurbishment, the health authorities have confirmed.
Times of Malta was informed on Wednesday that patients were being moved from Sir Paul Boffa to Mater Dei Hospital. Meanwhile, medical and technical staff was being asked not to turn up at the hospital as parts of the place were deemed to be condemned.
On Thursday, PN MP Ian Vassallo Hagi said on social media that the patients had been moved to Mater Dei Hospital corridors. Times of Malta has been unable to confirm the claims.
For years, the hospital served as the main oncology centre in the country.
And despite rumours that it would one day be turned into a hotel by the private sector, in 2015 Health Minister Chris Fearne said the building would be refurbished so that it could continue to be used as a hospital.
Oncology patients had been moved to the new Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre outside Mater Dei, in 2015.
During the pandemic, the hospital hosted COVID patients, but those in quarantine there had said the hospital was in a filthy and rundown state, making their stay unbearable.
In recent years the hospital hosted elderly patients who can no longer live in their own homes while they were awaiting places in long-term residential facilities.
A spokesperson for the health ministry said “structural damage was discovered” during refurbishment and maintenance works at Boffa Hospital.
“As a precaution, the few patients housed temporarily at Boffa awaiting transfers to long-term facilities were moved out. Boffa Hospital will remain empty until a full survey is carried out and necessary works are completed,” the spokesperson added.
It is not yet clear how many patients were at the hospital when the structural damage was discovered.
Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, former King George V (KGV) Hospital was initially opened in 1922 as a memorial to the men of the British Merchant Navy who died in World War I. The building was severely damaged by aerial bombing 1942 but hospital services were never interrupted.
The hospital was rebuilt in 1948 under the premiership of Paul Boffa and renamed Sir Paul Boffa Hospital in 1976.