The government has now drawn a line, said Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary, yesterday and it is up to Skanska to come up with a new proposal.

The government wants to know what the final cost of building the hospital will be and the date of completion.

So far the negotiations have been deadlocked, with Skanska not accepting the government’s last position.

If there is no agreement on Tuesday, Mr Fenech said, the government will have to take a decision.

(See page 2 for first instalment of a short history of the Mater Dei hospital and page 25 for letter by Dr Michael Farrugia, Opposition spokesman on health and former minister of health)

The Malta Independent on Sunday also asked Labour leader Alfred Sant why his government had refused to continue with the pre-1996 PN government’s plan to build the San Raffaele hospital.

A spokesperson for Dr Sant replied: “The San Raffaele concept was splitting the acute health services in Malta in two: it was taking over some of the specialised services provided by St Luke’s Hospital and leaving all the other services at St Luke’s.

“All the stakeholders were against such a concept stating that the patients’ health and safety was at risk.

“Take this scenario: patients and/or doctors going to and fro from one hospital to another. The pathology, X-Ray departments and others were earmarked to be situated in only one of the hospitals. Patients, blood samples, biopsies and other investigations were to be transported from one hospital to the other.”

Dr Sant was also asked on what study/ies did the Labour government base its decision. Dr Sant’s spokesperson replied that the “Labour government based its decision to continue building the Tal-Qroqq site hospital as an acute general hospital for Malta following the report by the Management Efficiency Unit.”

A copy of the report was also attached and will be reviewed in The Malta Independent daily.

Dr Sant was finally asked whether financing considerations were included in the decision. Dr Sant’s spokesperson replied: “The cost effectiveness and the long term implications of various options were considered prior to the final decision taken at the end of March 1997” and also referred to the MEU report.

Mr Fenech, however, had other ideas. He told listeners that the total cost of the hospital would come to Lm250 million, according to the MLP. But this cost would have been incurred only if the Labour government’s plans for the hospital were implemented, Mr Fenech said.

These plans were then changed by the succeeding PN administration which found, he said, no plans whatsoever other than a decision taken by the Sant government.

The hospital had been planned in 1992 as a specialist hospital for six diseases only, including arthritis.

It would have been a specialised and regional hospital.

Skanska won the contract to build the hospital. Before 1996, Dr Sant had said he would pull the building down but once in power, he enlarged it from 350 beds to 1,000 beds. Just the building alone would have come, proportionately, to Lm150 million. Add to that the cost of equipment and it would easily rise to Lm250 million, thus proving the MLP right.

Mr Fenech claimed that Dr Sant in office was “irresponsible”: He issued a direct order until the two sides came to an agreement and ordered the construction of a further two storeys so that work did not stop as otherwise the government would face huge penalties.

So instead of pulling it down Dr Sant actually doubled it and decided to do away with St Luke’s Hospital. This turned it into the biggest hospital construction project in Europe.

The PN government, in 1998, found itself with a 1,000-bed hospital with two additional storeys.

After negotiations, the government came to an agreement with Skanska on the method of procedure and on the capping of the whole project.

But then various discrepancies started to appear and FMS refused to pay. Then negotiations rached deadlock and Tuesday’s meeting is the last opportunity to unblock the situation.

Mr Fenech added that he suspects that the Opposition’s stand is aimed at obstructing the process to further the interests of contractors who are related to people in the MLP’s top echelons.

The government does not intend to give anyone a blank cheque, he said: there is a limit and government now awaits new proposals from Skanska.