The Nationalist Party has said that just after announcing the Gozo Hospital project for the second time, “the Government reduced the budget for this hospital.”

However, the Government has hit back in a statement saying that in fact “the expenditure for the Gozo General Hospital has increased.” See Government statement below.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Shadow Minister for Health Adrian Delia and Shadow Minister for Gozo Alex Borg said that, “the people of Gozo deserve better.”

A few days ago, Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela launched the Gozo Hospital regeneration project for the second time. However, the PN claimed that in the Budget presented last Monday, “the Government reduced expenditure for this hospital by €15 million.”

According to PN, “the projected recurrent expenditure for the next year will decrease by €9 million, from €43 million to €34 million, according to the Budget Estimates (Vote 44). Capital expenditure will be reduced by two-thirds. Page 396 of the Government’s Health Estimates (Line Item 7611) shows a reduction from €9 million to €3 million, a further reduction of €6 million.”“This comes as the supposed new hospital project is expected to start, yet there is no trace of it, now confirmed by the Government’s own estimates,” the PN said. “The total cut for the health sector in Gozo amounts to €15 million, equivalent to a drastic reduction of almost 30%.”

The Shadow Ministers stated that “this means that not only will no additional services be brought to the Gozo General Hospital, but existing services will be under considerable pressure due to the reduced expenditure.”

They continued to explain how “the lack of professionalism and transparency regarding the future of the hospital in Gozo became increasingly evident in recent days from the responses given by Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela.”

“After the Nationalist Party made it clear last week that there were serious doubts about the second launch of the hospital project in Gozo, Minister Jo Etienne Abela, in an unministerial manner, personally attacked those who expressed doubts about these plans,” the Shadow Ministers said.

They explained that “the doubts are based on the fact that the normal processes expected for a project of this scale are entirely absent from both the planning and preparation perspectives to accommodate tenders for this project. The public has been bitten once, and we will not accept being bitten a second time.”

Government statement

The Health Ministry said that contrary to what has been said, “the health budget did not decrease, but increased, and the recurring expenditure for the Gozo General Hospital did not decrease, but increased by at least € 7 million. The health budget increased by 11% to €1,219,147,000.?”

Even the budget for active ageing increased by 11% to €309,840. The total budget of the ministry rose to €1.53 billion. The Ministry added that “t is worth noting that in relation to the General Hospital of Gozo, in the health budget, two new votes were added.”

“€14,883,000 for Malta Health Ltd, which is a company that absorbed all the employees that Steward had, including those who worked at the Gozo General Hospita land the contractual obligations for services provided. 45% of this vote will be absorbed by the Gozo General Hospital, with the remainder absorbed by the Karin Grech Hospital. This line item was newly inserted for accounts reasons,” the Ministry said.

It went on to say that another €14 million was voted in a new allocation for initiatives with private hospitals to reduce waiting lists, which means that costs that would have been incurred in public hospitals were allocated in this vote.

The recurring cost on the Gozo General Hospital, figures supplied by the Ministry for Health:In relation to the capital cost on the new hospital in Gozo, the Health Ministry said “it should be noted that the project takes a number of years and what appears in the budget is what is allocated for the first year which is then complemented every year after that, in the respective budgets.”

The Ministry stated that “here is also allocated for health €59 million in European funds for the purchase of equipment and another €25 million in European funds for IT systems, from which of course the Gozo General Hospital will also benefit. These do not appear in the health budget.

“For the government, Gozo is a priority and the investment in the Gozo General Hospital will continue as already announced,” the Ministry concluded.

Top 2 photos: PN

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