NEWS | Wednesday, 17 December 2008

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€128 million later… Mater Dei’s first year

Matthew Vella
Social policy minister John Dalli produced a breakdown of recurrent costs at Malta’s national hospital, one year on since Mater Dei opened its doors to the public.
The state-of-the-art, multi-million hospital incurred €98 million in total costs between November 2007 and October this year.
The government incurred an additional €29 million in medicines and pharmaceutical products, bringing the total cost up to €128 million.
Costs were higher during January, April, and July, with an average of over €9 million for the month. Elsewhere during the year, costs hovered at an average of €7-8 million.
The grand advertising campaign launched by government, boasting of the new hospital, did have a flipside: on 26 November 2007, a shocking 432 visitors entered emergency – a phenomenal influx compared to the average daily 250 making use of the same department, only exceptionally rising to 300.
By July 2008, government was launching a campaign telling people not to bother presenting themselves to the Emergency and Admissions Department, unless their ailment really is an emergency. Only 20% of the average 300 visitors every day were really emergencies.
The total cost to run Mater Dei’s predecessor, St Luke’s Hospital, between November 2006 and October 2007, was just over €86 million, while the medicines bill then totalled €20 million.

Also in parliament, John Dalli revealed that maintenance and repair costs for Mater Dei for January to September, amounted to €6.3 million.
The costs for the new hospital come in the wake of revelations that Mater Dei’s maintenance workers were outsourced to private company Mekanika for €1.8 million, while 64 maintenance staff from St Luke’s were absorbed into the hospital structure.
Mekanika was in fact allowed to keep the maintenance contract it had with Skanska, the hospital construction company, and then extended when Mater Dei passed on into government’s hands.
Mekanika was engaged by Skanska for the installation, testing and commissioning of mechanical and electrical systems at the hospital. The contract runs to 31 December 2008.
As in the case of the Group 4 Securitas (G4S) security contract, another contentious contract, no public tender was issued for the maintenance contract – contrary to public procurement laws that require public competitions for contracts of over €46,000.
Dozens of maintenance workers who worked at St Luke’s Hospital were rendered inactive while a private firm carries out their job.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt

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