With two and a half months to go before the official handover date, 90 per cent of the Mater Dei complex has been handed over by the contractor, Skanska Malta JV, to the Foundation for Medical Services (FMS).

This means that the areas handed over are finished from construction and finishing works, services and engineering systems.

FMS is now responsible for these areas and can let the other main contractors, INSO for medical equipment and Frezza for the furniture, complete the halls.

Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech announced this yesterday at a ceremony awarding children for their drawings.

In the past week, Mr Fenech said, FMS has taken over the main chapel, the central block, which includes a 300-seat auditorium, six seminar rooms and the chaplains’ quarters. Also transferred were the staff restaurant, staff quarters, the blood bank and other areas.

The Radiology Department will be finished by the end of this month. The last equipment to be installed will be the mammography apparatus, which will be transferred before the migration date. It has also been decided that the MRI will be transferred from St Luke’s to Mater Dei after the migration is completed. The staff in that department is being trained because it will be operating in a different way when it moves to Mater Dei: a completely digital system.

Certification of the medical equipment is now ongoing, following the installation of such equipment.

The installation, testing and commissioning of the furniture in three of the four hospital blocks with patients’ wards have been completed.