The appeal on the recently cancelled tender to expand Mater Dei Hospital's emergency department will be heard "in the coming days", Health Minister, Jo Etienne Abela, told The Malta Independent.

Minister Abela told this newsroom on Friday morning that the appeal will soon be formally discussed in front of the Public Contracts Review Board (PCRB).

The Mater Dei A&E expansion tender is presently in the middle of a legal appeal, after the Government had opted to cancel the single bid that it had received for the major project earlier this August. The €80 million tender was cancelled after the Government received a sole bid valued at €135.5 million from CE-BB Projects and stated that it had no obligation to accept this offer, which was nearly 70% more expensive than the intended €80 million, even though no other bids were received.

CE-BB Projects Ltd filed an appeal over the Government's decision before the public contracts review board. CE-BB Projects Ltd is a joint partnership between CE Installations and the Bonnici Group.

The tender called for the extension of Mater Dei Hospital's A&E Department and the construction of staff amenities within it, ten new acute mental health wards with an external recreational area for patients, new engineering plant areas for the national hospital (plus the relocation of existing installations), a new car park, an electrical substation, and some stores and workshops.

By expanding the national hospital's A&E Department, this project was envisioned to alleviate some strain off the country's presently stretched emergency services.

Simultaneously, the development of 10 mental health wards was opted as the Government's means to shift mental health services away from Mount Carmel Hospital.

Plans within the tender envisioned for patients staying at these mental health wards to have access to an outdoor therapeutic garden.