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Commissions and allegations aside, we can rejoice Mater Dei is about to be finished
Can we ever ignore the quality strides in healthcare service.Certainly this is a long term goal that started years back with Dr Fenech Adami ‘s vision to build a specialist clinic called San Raffeale.
This was really the brainchild of Don Luigi Verze, the founder of the San Raffaele Foundation of Monte Tabor in Milan, the new clinic was meant to specialise in research, catering for just 400 beds.Later in 1996 it was redesigned for double the beds on a cost-plus ‘design & build’ contract of Lm 83 million.
The transfer of services and patients from St Luke’s Hospital to the new Mater Dei Hospital should be completed towards the end of this year. While unions have been publicly complaining about on/off consultation, the migration road map speaks very clearly on human resources by stating that there should be the formulation and approval of an HR plan and commencement of negotiations with unions to enable the transfer of staff to the employment of FMS and employment of staff to meet new management and clinical service profiles.
It is a proud achievement to the nation. Mater Dei Hospital will be the first building in Malta with insulated external walls and with high performance glass in the windows. It will have state of -the -art technology that will assist doctors to closely monitor the medical history of each in-patient .
Bedside facilities include an overhead panel with oxygen supply, suction system, lighting control, socket outlets, nurse call system with speech facility, internet, telephone and TV sockets; CPR pull button in each patient area for activation when the cardio-pulminary resuscitation team is needed. Running Mater Dei demands an awesome HR resouce as it requires 600 doctors and paramedics to run at its optimum levels .As can be expected problems during the transition stages were not absent. To start with, MUMN President Paul Pace said that there are a number of issues that are not yet solved about the migration plan and that the issues are not minor ones.
The MUMN is the latest union to express its concern about the way the discussions on the migration plans are being held after the Medical Association and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.But many say it was worth waiting for while medics are hopeful saying the new IT system will reflect a quantum leap in technical advancement over Clinicom, the system currently in place at St Luke’s hospital.
The Prime Minister observed that the price of medicines was increasing at astronomical rates while each medical student cost the government Lm35,000 from the moment one entered university to the day one graduated.Quoting Professor Albert Cilia-Vincenti, writing in Times he reiterates that ‘yes, we do deserve Mater Dei, but our economy and social services (and law-abiding taxpayers) may have paid an excessive price. Mind you, the same may be said for not having closed Malta Drydocks (and offered a golden handshake to workers) around 15 years ago ‘unquote. Instantly the Nationalist party defends its patch by saying that we could only afford such a massive investment in the health sector because efforts were in hand to improve the economy and the public financial situation .
The final cost of Lm250 million includes the Skanska contract of Lm139 million plus another Lm5 million for phases two and three of the building, the medical equipment costs of between Lm25 million and Lm27 million, IT, furniture, land expropriation costs, the pre-1996 Skansa contract of about Lm20 million and FMS recurrent costs. It included Lm30 million paid in VAT.
On a positive note the country has made remarkable progress in the last three years. The structural deficit has been reduced drastically to below three per cent of GDP, from a high level of 10 per cent just three years ago. Inflation has been controlled and the debt level is also decreasing.
Forgetting for a moment the spurious over spending in commissioning and erecting Mater Dei hospital and untold political manuevering this year has given birth to opening of a monumental monolithe which is a gift to the people to enjoy. But the opposition hits back; saying doubts on transparency started arising before 1996, when the original St Raffaele contract was issued and the deal was signed with a consortium that quoted a price that was Lm2 million higher than the lowest bid. Another allegation asserts that the company Mixer Ltd was never identified as being affiliated to the company that won the tender, but it began supplying concrete for the job and had been taken over during the negotiation period by Bastjan Dalli, brother of former minister John Dalli.
The plot thickens when Dr Portelli, a former Nationalist Party MP (and ex-president of the Nationalist party) who is now in charge of a private hospital, made serious allegations of corruption on a prime time TV show.
He is sure that, based on research on a similar sized hospital in Scotland it should have never exceeded Lm125 million. He rightfully contends that Mater Dei represents 20-25 per cent of our national debt, and it is costing us some Lm1 million in interest every month.
The Mater Dei saga may be over yet for some the sleaze that they allege rekindles memories of the tortous path over its long 17 year journey to completion.
Only last month ,the Prime Minister has asked the Commissioner of Police to look into allegations made by Dr Frank Portelli. We all hold our breath waiting for the conclusion of this belated police investigation. During another TV programme, Portelli claimed that commissions were paid between middle-men.He alleged salaried people in the administration have as a result of earning generous commissions been able to buy property at values far beyond their means.
In the TV talk show Dr Portelli reiterated that a member on the adjudicating board for the granting of tenders at Mater Dei had himself submitted a tender through a company in which he had an interest. He alleges this individual had access to all the relevant documentation as the latter proceeded to take seven box loads of site plans, building plans and bills of quantities to copy and retain a copy for his own personal use.
In the meantime, Portelli has been accused of safeguarding his private hospital’s interests in the run-up to the competition resulting from the opening of the state-of-the-art Mater Dei.
Surely one cannot blame the government when FMS (the government appointed agency overseeing the hospital project)engaged external auditors in a public tender specifically to monitor and control alleged cost overruns on the Skanska contract .Two tenders were issued in succession.The first one in 2002 when the audit firm Grant Thornton (Horwath ‘s tender was much higher) was awarded the five year assignment to control and vet all payments to Skanska/subcontractors on the fixed Lm 83 million design & build (cost-plus) contact. The appontment was annulled as the then minister of finance intervened with the contracts committee requesting them to issue another more onerous tender.This tender was adjudicated by a team chaired by Mr Edwin Vella a retired ex-Commissioner of Inland revenue.This time around Grant Thornton did not submit its bid. The audit team Horwath/CLS was appointed as the one submitting the lowest bid even though the second tender was far more onerous. Provided no cost-overruns the audit fees spread over 5 years amounted to over one million liri. Conditions for the second tender obligated the successful firm of cost controllers /surveyors to guarantee that there will be no unauthorised cost-overruns beyond the agreed Lm 83 million. One may have to revisit this chapter as more details on historical payments are revealed hopefully when the Auditor General completes his report. For sure chicks may come home to roost and it is only proper that citizens call for retribution if any alleged abuse and sleaze is uncovered.
Be it as it may one cannot undervalue the majesty of a modern state- of- the art hospital. Hopefully this will slowly entice back a flock of doctors who have left the service to improve their careeers abroad. The saga of building and commissioning a new hosipital was long and sometimes tortous but we can rejoice that we are at journey ‘s end. |
