Leader of the Opposition Adrian Delia has presented a court application to stop the transfer of the concession between VGH and Steward, and return the three state hospitals back under government control.

Describing the deal as “doomed to fail”, Delia said that VGH had breached a number of terms and deadlines stipulated in the contract, explaining that this was the basis for his case.

“We know as a fact that there were obligations within the contract with VGH that had to be fulfilled within three years...this contact should be declared null. It is the most scandalous deal this country has ever seen and we are convinced that the government should have never entered this agreement in the first place,” he said, with the PN Parliamentary group standing behind him.

“We still do not who the ultimate beneficial owners of VGH are, or the price the concession has been sold for, despite filing a judicial protest and repeatedly asking for the information in parliament. The Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, and Finance Minister Edward Scicluna have failed to reply to our questions,” he continued.

 

Asked by The Malta Independent as to what he would do, if he was the Prime Minister, with the three state hospitals, which desperately needed significant investment, should they return under state control, Delia was coy and failed to provide a specific plan, insisting that he was fulfilling his obligations as the opposition by protecting the country's interests.

“The government always talks about the surplus, but why is this money not going to our healthcare system?”

Delia also faced questions concerning his “conviction that VGH was built to fail” and who would benefit from its failure. The PN leader said that if he knew who the shareholders were he could answer that question.

“I can only ask the question as to why the government defended this company to the end, and even when it failed it gave VGH the right to choose who purchases and takes over our healthcare system.”

VGH has been at the centre of controversy since it transferred its 30-year concession to run three state hospitals to Steward Healthcare System only 21 months into operations.

Reliable and well-informed sources have told the newsroom that VGH was forced into a sale due to mounting financial difficulty and that Minister Mizzi had known about the state of affairs for an entire year prior to the announcement.

Labour Party reaction

In a statement, the Labour Party would say that Delia has continued on with the same tactics employed by his predecessor to “try to discourage investment” contrary to the ‘new way’ that was promised.

“He was meant to go to court the first thing in the morning and ended up spending it struggling with his parliamentary group. As a matter of fact, he said what he was going to do before speaking to his group and ended up arguing with them in a two-hour meeting,” it read.

Government reaction

Government, in a statement, said that Delia's actions before the courts against the health sector investment by Stewards was done in an attempt to make patients lose out on the best infrastructure in the Gozo, St Luke's and Karin Grech hospitals.

Government said that the Opposition is not proposing any alternative, with the inevitable conclusion being that the Opposition Leader's attack is against foreign investment. They said that the Opposition's negativity is worse than before.