Steward Healthcare will leave the Gozo General Hospital by the end of this month, PN MP Chris Said claimed on social media on Thursday evening.

In a Facebook post, Said said that the hospital will return to government hands, adding that this is a great victory for Gozitans and a great victory for the Nationalist Party which has been fighting against the privatisation of the Gozo General Hospital since the first day it emerged.

Steward have since reacted to the story, saying that it is "purely speculative" and renewing their commitment to the three hospitals.

Gozo General Hospital was one of three hospitals privatised some years ago.  It, along with St. Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital, was sold to Vitals Global Healthcare in a deal which remains enveloped in controversy and which only lasted some 22 months.  Steward Healthcare took over the concession from Vitals in 2017, with Health Minister Chris Fearne describing them as “the real deal.”

Further controversy has since emerged, not least a report by the National Audit Office which found that there was evidence of collusion between the government and Vitals in how the concession for the three hospitals was awarded.

In his Facebook post, Chris Said said that Steward’s alleged imminent departure is a certificate of failure for the Labour government in an important field – health in Gozo.  He said that in the last six years not a single Gozitan Labour MP has spoken a word against the privatisation of this hospital.

He expressed his hope that the government would give a clear rendition of the millions which Steward and Vitals before them received, and reminded that they had a lot of obligations which they didn’t follow through on, such as the building of a new hospital with 450 beds by 2018.

“They took the money for this, and now they are going to leave Gozo without have placed a single stone for this hospital”, Said said.

He said that a lot of questions still have to be answered.