St Philip’s hospital owner Frank Portelli has blamed vandals and the police for the thousands of patients’ medical records that were left accessible to the public inside the closed building.

“When it was closed, the hospital was securely locked and left perfectly intact. Patients’ medical records were locked away safely in the basement and there were no human organs anywhere,” he told Times of Malta in an interview.

“Vandals deliberately and nefariously knocked down the doors multiple times, smashed the windows, and some even removed stone slabs from the entrances to wreck the place, plant fake human organs, walk through the medical records to spite me, and police are doing nothing to enforce the law," Portelli said.

The Santa Venera hospital has recently become a haven for vandals and daredevils who seem to have broken in repeatedly and smashed the place up, leaving most of the entrances wide open and accessible for the public to wander inside.

One room contains the medical documents of the patients that were treated there, most of which have clearly been opened and dispersed all over the place. 

Times of Malta visited the premises and can confirm there are pre-operation documents, ECG test results, ultrasounds and entire patients’ files lying around, containing thousands of medical records with names and details.

People who work in the neighbourhood said the hospital has frequent visitors, who wander curiously inside every day. Times of Malta can confirm that while at the premises last week, in a span of two hours at least three other groups of people were touring the facility.

Portelli insists he never left the hospital open, neither did he abandon it, and he sent people to seal the entrances multiple times over the past months, but "vindictive vandals" keep breaking in.

He said it was scandalous for people to walk inside the premises and flip through people’s private health documents, but refused to take responsibility for the fact that the hospital is still open to enable it. 

He insisted that people who continue to walk into the hospital are at fault, because they are breaking the law, and blamed the police for not taking action.

“The truth is, this is what this country has come to. You do everything you can to secure your private property, but vandals break in and smash it up, and the police do nothing to protect you. I have to report every time there is a break-in,” he said.

“If it was another ‘Portelli’ at the centre of the story, maybe things would have been different, but it’s just me.

“This coverage about the hospital might be harmful to me, but the hospital can be refurbished. What is worse is the incredible harm that is being done to our country. Foreign investors are seeing all this and confirming that this is not a safe country anymore, and even though we have great potential for investment, we’re losing it.”

But the authorities deny they have any responsibility, and they all point a finger back at Portelli.

Contacted for comment, the police said it is Portelli who is lawfully obliged to secure the premises.

“Since the property is privately owned, the private party is obliged by law to secure the premises,” a spokesperson for the police said.

Data protection investigation under way

Lawyer John L. Gauci, a court-appointed provisional administrator for the hospital, also said he cannot take action to secure the premises, arguing that his role is limited by law and judicial appointment and he requires an express court order to act on the situation.

Questions were also sent to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner, Ian Degaura, who confirmed that shortly after reports emerged in the media, his office initiated an "ex-officio investigation with the owner of the property".

He said this was in light of the serious implications which any unauthorised access to medical records belonging to living individuals may have on their fundamental rights and freedoms.

During the interview, which took place on Friday early afternoon, Portelli said he sent people to lock the entrances of the hospital once more last week. Times of Malta visited the premises again on Friday evening and once again on Sunday morning, but the entrances were still open.

St Philip’s was a private hospital that operated between 1995 and 2012, when it ran into financial difficulties. It closed down after a hopeful deal, which was supposed to see the government lease it, fell through.

Over the past months, the hospital had made headlines several times, including once last December when arsonists tried to burn several of its rooms.

Portelli alleges frame-up

Then last month, shocking footage emerged of a foreign Youtuber walking effortlessly into the hospital and wandering through vandalised operating theatres and shattered medical equipment. He flipped through medical records, and walked over and around broken furniture, scattered papers, syringes, and what he claimed to be ‘human organs’.

Portelli argued the video was sponsored and it was in English, meaning the videographer was paid to make a bad name internationally for the hospital and for Malta. He also outrightly denied that the hospital staff ever left any human organs inside the rooms when it closed, and said those were planted in there to taint his reputation.

“The people who broke in must have bought meat, animal hearts and lungs, even a chicken leg, and planted them there. They must have because we never left any organs there,” he said.

“They were being paid and they were doing it maliciously.”

YouTube creator: 'front door was wide open'

YouTuber Bob Thissen denied faking the video or earning money from it. It makes no sense that items would be planted there because it takes a lot of effort and would not be worth it, since the rooms were already filled with buckets of organs and patient files, he told Times of Malta.

The Dutch Youtuber, who travels the world to document the eeriest, and sometimes most dangerous, abandoned places, said the hospital was ‘creepy’ but it did not surprise him. He said what he saw was very common in abandoned hospitals worldwide.

“The front door was wide open during two visits in Malta with over a month in between. Normally places like this are better secured with guards, cameras or an alarm system but in this case you could basically walk in at various points.

"I saw quite some homeless people during my visit. I also saw copper cables being thrown out. If nothing is done, the situation will only get worse. It’s a miracle it hasn’t been burned down yet,” Thissen said.

“I visit abandoned places worldwide and this place was just a quick visit before visiting my main goal, which was another abandoned place in Malta.

"My only intention is to document abandoned places through photos and video. They are often beautiful, forgotten places that should be turned into a museum, but there’s no money to realise this. Since this place had no historical or architectural value I only made a quick walkthrough because it looks pretty creepy inside.”

Portelli believes the hospital’s days are not over. He says it can be refurbished to its former glory and integrated within the health system, “which badly needs a mental health hospital, a children’s hospital and an isolation hospital”.

St Philip’s, he said, has the potential to be any of those and attract foreign investment.