The wall was included in the original plans approved by the Mepa board when it first gave the hospital the green light some 10 years ago. The original plans submitted by the FMS did not include the screen. The planning directorate suggested the screen be included because it considered it to be, aesthetically, an essential part of the hospital’s design since it breaks a large expanse of plain masonry on blocks E, F and A.

The hospital’s architects accepted the directorate’s request and added the screen in their design. Yesterday, however, together with a number of alterations, the FMS requested permission to remove the screen from the designs completely and not build the wall.

The rest of the alterations applied for, six in all, were all approved but the screen wall was left as a reserved matter and will be discussed again at another hearing, possibly with designs for a revised screen wall.

To date, FMS has made 34 applications regarding the hospital, 27 of which have been approved. The alterations approved yesterday are mostly of a technical nature and include the introduction of service shafts, division of plant rooms and the reorganisation of circulation ways.

The first application was submitted by the FMS in 1993 for the construction of roads leading to the new hospital. Construction on the original 450-bed research hospital began in October 1995 following the construction of the entrance roads. However, in September 1998 the government formulated a revised brief in which the hospital was to be expanded to an 850-bed acute general hospital. It is intended that the services offered at St Luke’s, Boffa and Mount Carmel hospitals will eventually be transferred to the Mater Dei Hospital.