Vitals Global Healthcare is the privileged company running three of our hospitals. Its website declares that this company is here to offer “innovative healthcare made personal.” The “About Us” section has all the right words to suggest that those behind this project know how to sell themselves. The question is: Will they deliver as promised?

Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne have assured us that this is the best thing that has happened to Malta since the Neolithic temples (or almost). Forgive me if I don’t take their word for it. Their reputation precedes them.

I will therefore try to figure out what is going on through what the VGH website itself says, as well as through what the CEO, Armin Ernst, has told the media lately.

The VGH contracts were signed on the 30th November 2015. VGH's first press release (as indicated by its own website) is dated 30th November 2016 – exactly one year later. Busy year!

In a short comment to this paper on Tuesday, Ernst told journalist Kevin Schembri Orland that “the €4 million given to Karin Grech Hospital by government were operational funds, and are spent on paying salaries and ensuring that the hospital continues to run as it did before.” I think this statement deserves some clarification.

First of all, according to the supplementary financial estimates (2016), VGH was not given €4 million. It was given €16,350,000.

In 2016, VGH was given €12,450,000 (as a Health Concession Agreement – Gozo General Hospital) PLUS €3,900,000 (as a Health Concession Agreement – Karen Grech Rehabilitation Hospital). Hence the Maltese taxpayer has funded VGH to the tune of €16,350,000.

This great sum was paid, mind you, not to improve the service, or to add any beds, but to spend on salaries and to ensure the hospital “continues to run as it did before.”

Let's remember that the government has announced several times that the salaries for all health professionals and hospital employees remain on the national payroll.

But maybe VGH has been recruiting widely to improve the service? Let's see what its website says. That first press release announces that VGH has recruited the grand total of five occupational therapists and three physiotherapists to “complement the existing personnel at Karin Grech Hospital.”

The management structure of the company was announced on the 16th December 2016, with Ernst heading the leadership team. It is made up of a total of nine persons. This therefore brings the total number of persons employed by VGH (as announced by the company itself) to just 17.

Sixteen million euros to cover the additional salaries of a mere 17 people? Surely that can't be. What else can it be for?

The €16,350,000 given to VGH is over and above the running costs and salaries for the Gozo and Karen Grech Hospital, which were already budgeted for in the 2016 estimates. (Gozo Hospital estimates were already at €27,810,000, including salaries, while Karin Grech Hospital was at €14,000,000 EXCLUDING salaries, medicines, supplies, equipment, etc.)

Perhaps the health minister, Chris Fearne, or the Prime Minister himself might want to explain to everyone why a company which is in its infancy has been given €16,350,000 in 2016 alone when the service offered by the two hospitals has not improved but has continued to “run as it did before" – if not worse.

What else does the budget for 2017 show?

(1) VGH will be given not only another €16,500,000 but also, in addition, €1,200,000 under the heading “Gozo Private-Public Hospital”.

(2) There is possibly another €2,500,000 which is indicated as “Long Term Medical Beds” (both under “Programmes and Initiatives”).

(3) There will also be an estimated €11,000,000 under vote 47 “Contribution to Government Entities” which is called “Karen Grech Rehabilitation Centre.”

These numbers tell a serious story. The company which was meant to invest €200 million in our health system is, actually, being paid many millions by us!

The only “investment” announced so far is the opening of a nursing school. VGH will be investing TWO MILLION euros (no less, eh?) in this project, a mere crumb from the rich fruity cake given to it in just one year from taxpayers' money.

And we are expected to be grateful. To whom, anyway? The ultimate owners of VGH remain unknown.

Given that the Maltese hospitals are its very first project, however, we can be forgiven our worst suspicions.