One of the requirements imposed by the government on Vitalis Global Healthcare and Bluestone - the preferred bidders of a €190 million health care investment plan – is to develop a high-intensity trauma centre at St Luke’s Hospital to treat wounded foreigners involved in conflicts.
In exclusive comments to this newsroom, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne yesterday said that the centre will be treating such persons against payment, citing Libya’s case as an example where a number of Libyans – who sustained injuries as a result of the civil war - sought medical assistance in Malta.
Yesterday Projects Malta – the government entity which acts as a coordinator between the private sector and the various ministries for public private partnerships – announced the preferred bidders for the St Luke’s, Karin Grech Rehabilitation and Gozo General hospitals project. Initially, the government had proposed that the investment should be that of €200 million but it is understood that the preferred bidders have proposed an investment in the region of €190 million.
Worthy of note is that the parent company of Bluestone is Singapore-based Oxley.
Mr Fearne explained that negotiations with the investors will start immediately and once negotiations are concluded at the end of this year, works on the project will kick off. He said the project will be developed in phases over a four-year-period.
“One of the requirements imposed on the investors is to promote Malta as a centre of excellence for medical tourism.
“Our aim is to position ourselves among the top medical tourism destinations; the investors aim to attract tourists from the US, Canada, the Middle East and North Africa.
“The investors are set to focus on four areas in medical tourism: orthopaedics, cardiovascular, prosthetics, and trauma,” Mr Fearne said.
The business model is to focus on a period of 10 years but the investors will be given the right to expand on the project after the 10-year period is over, according to Mr Fearne.
“The plan is to have a total 1,032 beds - 712 beds for government use and 320 for medical tourism,” he said.
Mr Fearne explained that the government will have option of utilising the “medical tourism” beds in the event the need arose.
The 1,032 beds will be split as follows:
Gozo General Hospital: 225 acute care beds, 175 geriatric and rehabilitation beds. An additional 100 beds will be created in 2025.
Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital: 320 geriatric beds
St Luke’s Hospital: 180 rehabilitation beds, 120 acute beds (96 acute beds and 24 beds at trauma centre) and 12 dermatology beds.