Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1528437
3 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 25 OCTOBER 2024 NEWS GozoToday is a weekly newspaper focused primarily on Gozo. It hopes to serve as a source of information on business, culture, entertainment and of course current affairs. Gozo has a special charm about it but it is also a bustling Island with an identity of its own. We will strive to bring you the news over the next three months. GozoToday is published every Friday and is available to numerous outlets in Gozo and on the ferries that carry so many visitors to Gozo from Malta and beyond. GozoToday MediaToday Co. Ltd Vjal ir-Rihan San Gwann SGN 9016 EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt THE Health Minister is mocking Gozitans when say- ing the first phase of a new Gozo hospital will be ready in five months' time, the Na- tionalist Party said. Nationalist MPs Adrian Delia and Alex Borg said the Planning Authority had no application for a Gozo hos- pital before it. Government procurement systems also showed no signs of tendering or project management initi- atives, they added. "It seems like a phantom project," the MPs said, add- ing the "amateurish and me- diocre" manner by which the hospital project is being an- nounced is "disrespectful" to Gozitans. "It also clearly shows that this is nothing but smoke and mirrors, which bodes ill for everyone," the MPs said. They were reacting to the announcement made by Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela this week that the first phase of the Gozo hospital would be completed by the first quarter of 2025. The first phase includes the relocation of elderly patients out of the geriatric ward and the completion of geological testing of the site where a 400-bed acute general hospi- tal will be built. Abela also said a call will be issued shortly for the rental of a building for relocation of the existing hospital's admin- istration. A new Gozo hospital was one of the contractual obli- gations in the hospitals con- cession agreement concluded with Vitals, and later Steward Health Care. It never mate- rialised and the contract was subsequently cancelled by the court. Several people, includ- ing former prime minister Jo- seph Muscat, and companies are currently facing corrup- tion charges over the Vitals concession. The Opposition MPs said the hospital project should have started long ago and cast doubt on the Health Minis- ter's commitment. "How can the government be trusted to complete the first phase in five months when we do not even know how many phases there are, or how long each phase is meant to take? The first phase of how many?" Delia and Borg described the minister's announcement as "a cosmetic exercise". "The government has already de- ceived Gozitans once; we hope the latest pledge will not lead to another delusion," they added. 'No permit application or tenders in sight' Gozo General Hospital (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)