Top comment: “This sounds like another deal has already been struck behind our backs”

Sent in by Macduff this morning:

Another pie in the sky, typical of Labour. All the Prime Minister did was announce that he’s planning to announce an expression of interest for private companies to invest 200 million euros.

At least we don’t have single, highly specific figures this time round (“198.7 million euros”), reminiscent of the energy agreement before the general election.

The reports so far all sounded like a jumbled collection of “bed numbers”.

It’s not even clear how many beds will be available for the Malta Department of Health’s use and how many for “medical tourism”, let alone how will they be distributed: medical versus surgical, “normal”, “monitor” versus HDU.

The devil is in the detail, and it makes us all #negattivi.

The Dean of Education at Barts and The London has already made it clear that they will recruit staff in Malta and not bring in people from Britain or elsewhere, and their students will train at Mater Dei Hospital too.

Someone should give the University of Malta’s Rector, Juanito Camilleri, a tinkle – especially since it’s an open secret that the university’s facilities for medical education are already over-stretched.

And I wonder how the government already knows it needs extra beds at Gozo General and St Luke’s hospitals, when it is itself building a 300-bed block at Mater Dei Hospital.

This sounds like another deal has already been struck behind our backs. All the government will be doing is leasing state health property to a private consortium, with the option of buying services from that same consortium.

You have to wonder, at this stage, whether the sale of St James Capua Hospital to as yet unknown non-Maltese (American?) investors is in any way related to all this