Five years in Cabinet teach you a lot of lessons. The first one is that your job is not merely to be a good administrator but to get things done. The second one is that in order to get things done you need to take decisions. The third one is that once you take decisions, you get all sorts of feedback (some of it unexpected) but at the end of the day people know who has done the right thing.
We took an important decision in the Health Sector – that there is absolutely no way we were going to settle for second best in this crucial field. Our people deserve the absolute best, they deserve a world-class service. In order to achieve that, the Government simply cannot walk it alone. It needs to forge a partnership with the private sector.
And we took our decisions.
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The agreement signed this week between Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward Health Care, a leading USA-based healthcare operator, is good news for Malta and for our future. Steward Health Care is the largest private healthcare operator in the United States, where it is responsible for a total of 36 hospitals employing some 37,000 professionals. No argument can ever be made about a lack of expertise.
In a few words, they are the best. And they are going to work to turn the health sector (which has already been bolstered and improved) into the best thing it could ever be.
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Allow me to recount the way I remember things from 2013.
The Labour Party in Government had to face a healthcare system laden with serious problems, including a lack of bed space, medicine that was out of stock and never-ending waiting lists. The new administration immediately set off to address these issues. However, other problems loomed larger, such as the state in which St. Luke’s Hospital was in, after years of neglect. Anyone who, for some reason or another, still needed to visit St Luke's Hospital can very easily confirm this.
Those buildings were all left in a state of abandonment the moment major services migrated to Mater Dei Hospital. There's no two ways about it.
The new Government started to develop, back in 2014, the concept of medical tourism. After talks between the Government and the Malta Enterprise, the prestigious medical school Barts expressed interest to operate here.
Duly encouraged, in 2015 the Government issued a request for proposals in order for a medical school to be built, together with the hospital in Gozo, and extensive restoration to be carried out in St Luke’s Hospital and Karen Grech Hospital. The issuing of such a request nullifies any allegation that Vitals Global Healthcare could have been handpicked.
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The handpicking accusation was not the only one. I feel I should remind our readers that, having nothing to hide, it was the very Government to ask the Auditor General to investigate the agreement reached between the Government of Malta and Vitals Global Healthcare. This was done in view of the many accusations hurled by the Opposition; an exercise it insists to maintain to this day.
The Opposition insisted that the contract signed with Vitals had obscured parts. Little do they value the fact that the Auditor General, a widely respected individual, has full access to investigate the contract how and when he pleases.
Let’s not forget yet another accusation; that the Government paid twice as much as it was meant to pay to Vitals. This is an outright lie. To add a proverbial cherry to a very bitter cake, the Opposition MP Claudio Grech came up with a jaw dropping alternative: the Opposition would rather borrow loads of money and dive deep into the depths of loan land, rather than have a well planned partnership with the private sector.
No thank you, Claudio, I definitely don't want my country to go where you want it to go.
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Do note my usage of the word partnership, for the Opposition wants readers to believe it is a privatisation exercise. Simply put, it is not.
They know it is not, but truth is that we have an Opposition that is against all sorts of agreements with the private sector. Take Enemalta, Electrogas, Crane Currency, Shanghai Electric Power and the American University of Malta as other examples. Wherever the private sector is involved, the Opposition frontbenchers start to cry wolf.
Allow me, rather than wallow in the inexplicable alleys of the Opposition’s mind frame, to explain how our vision is being implemented. VGH immediately embarked on important tasks. Asbestos was completely removed from St. Luke’s campus; an exercise costing millions. An Orthotics and Prosthetics centre was inaugurated and amputees are now getting the quality service they deserve. A ward dedicated to stroke patients was inaugurated. Works began on a car park and on a medical school that will host students reading for a degree with Northumbria Nursing, in collaboration with MCAST and financed by VGH.
Investment was made in the Gozo General Hospital and Karen Grech Hospital, where doctors and specialists were engaged. New apparatus was installed in all mentioned hospitals and a new lab and medical imaging suite were inaugurated in Gozo. Our sister island now has an ambulance in the form of a helicopter, that has already saved the lives of 44 patients.
Works began on the Barts campus. Paper free systems are being introduced, thanks to advanced IT systems. The list goes on.
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I believe that here we are turning the people's ambitious aims into reality.
We are making it possible for our country to achieve an unprecedented level of service in the health sector without resorting to the Claudio Grech option. With a partnership with the one of the world's best healthcare operator, we are pushing our country forward, not back. We are making our system sustainable and keep over-achieving to higher and higher levels.
This is why we are in Government and this is why we are taking these decisions. Because we want the absolute best health care services for all Maltese and Gozitans.
If the question is whether to do or not to do, whether to keep moving forward or shy away from doing the right thing, we are definitely going to choose action over non-action. Governance over simple administration. Leadership over weakness.
Owen Bonnici is Justice Minister