Chris Fearne has pledged to reopen a childcare centre for Mater Dei Hospital employees, after the hospital decided to shut it down.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Fearne said he disagreed with the decision to close down the centre but understood management’s reasoning, as the centre was not widely used.

Parents who used the hospital’s childcare centre had previously told Times of Malta that Mater Dei Hospital management decided to close down the centre without advanced notice. 

Parents were given a week to find an alternative centre for their children. 

Sources said the childcare centre was closed as a money-saving measure, since not many Mater Dei employees were making use of the service. 

Fearne confirmed that, telling parliament that “from over 5,000 employees we have at Mater Dei, only around 20 use this childcare centre”.

“Despite this, we need to be a modern employer, and portray the message that not only do we take care of our patients, but we also take care of our employees and professionals.”

He said a childcare centre at Mater Dei is necessary and that the ministry had started discussions with Education Ministry, to make sure the childcare centre continues to operate. 

“We will make sure that the centre does not close, and if it has closed, that we make sure the service restart in the coming days,” he said.

The matter was reported to the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, which immediately wrote to Health Minister Chris Fearne to protest the sudden closure of the childcare centre. 

Meanwhile, parents have been told by the hospital management that they could not say when the centre would reopen, but that it would at least be "a number of weeks".