With Steward Healthcare registering a €6 million profit on concessions paid to it by the government to run three state hospitals, MUMN has expressed its shock at the news, stating that money could have been spent elsewhere.

MUMN president Paul Pace said that with desperate refurbishments needed in Mt. Carmel and the need of new wards in Mater Dei, “the money could have been spend more wisely to replace the temporary wards in Mater Dei Hospital found in the medical library, staff canteen and the various corridors of the hospital.”

In 2021, over and above the €50 million concession the government gave to Steward Health Care, an additional €40 million was given to the company. The reason for the additional funds was due to Steward Health Care complaining that the terms of the contract with the government needs to be renegotiated due to the immense investment needed.

Pace stressed on the lack of capital investment in projects such as the new outpatients block and parking at MDH, mental health hospital, mother and child facilities and a primary healthcare hub in the north of Malta were ignored and not started due to the misappropriation of funds given to Steward Healthcare.

“Such promised projects have been left o. the shelf due to financial problems in the health sector. At the same time the people of Malta are paying the high price with Steward and instead of tax payer money being used to invest in the country, it is used to make an American company richer than it is already.”

Pace continued to urge the government to address the issue urgently and “not to hide behind any law court case. Millions of taxpayer money is being wasted down the drain every year and no government official is being held accountable.”

“Accountability is only expected from the common people but when it comes to the political persons, accountability becomes non-existent.”

Although last year Finance Minister Clyde Caruana accused Steward of not contributing enough to revamp the hospitals, the hospital claim that investment was made in facilities, equipment and supplies.

The National Audit Office had also condemned the contract stating that Labour’s vision of privatisation of the health sector failed due to the choice of VGH as the primary concessionaire which set the stage of failure for what was to come.

While Vitals Global Healthcare had declared millions in losses, upon taking control in 2018 Steward Health Care declared millions in profit.