Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/685992
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 1 JUNE 2016 7 News Santa Lucija ODZ home: back to square one PA orders developers to find alternative site in urban zone, they get back re-proposing the same original ODZ site THE proponents of an elderly home outside Santa Lucija's de- velopment zones have failed to find an alternative site for this development after being asked to conduct a site selection study by the Planning Authority. In 2014, Healthmark Care Limited applied to develop a five-storey home for the elderly on ODZ land near the Santa Lu- cija secondary school. But a year later the PA asked the develop- ers to consider other sites. The site selection study was carried out following instruc- tions by the Planning Authority in August 2015. This was supposedly done to ensure that the guidelines set in the Spatial Plan for the Environ- ment and Development (SPED) are followed. This application is being seen as a major test case for the se- quential approach found in the SPED, which firstly calls on de- velopers to consider the re-use of existing developed land; sec- ondly to re-develop of existing developed land and buildings; and finally, where no other fea- sible alternatives exist: the use of vacant land. A report which concluded that no alternative site was found in the urban area, was submitted to MEPA in October 2015. The report included a screening for sites based on environmental and planning considerations and a financial Cost Benefit Analysis undertaken by Price- waterhouseCoopers. In March 2016, the PA advised the applicant to pursue the search for a suitable building or site in the Rural Area (Outside Development Zones). A report, which concluded that Santa Lu- cija was still the best site, was presented in the same month. The report shortlisted a total of six vacant ODZ sites. These included two sites in Luqa, two sites in Marsascala, one site in Fgura, and the original Santa Lucija site. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the short- listed sites identified the Santa Lucija site as the "preferable lo- cation". A Project Development state- ment submitted to the PA ac- knowledges the visual impact of the proposed development which will " be visible from vari- ous places since the Scheme Site is located at the highest point of the Santa Lucija area". It is also likely to be visible in the long distance views from the south, where there is a drop in level to Wied Garnaw. The site is locat- ed just on the edge of the Santa Lucija Development Zone. According to the PDS "close proximity to the school allows the potential for intergenera- tional interaction, and possibly also for the sharing of facilities". There are horse stables im- mediately adjoining the site (to the east). While this may have negative impacts like odours and noise; "there could also be positive, therapeutic impacts in relation to facilitating access to animals". The development proposed consists of 301 beds over five f loors. It also includes a chapel/ cinema, administration rooms, a hall, the main kitchen and din- ing areas, a coffee/sweet shop, a hairdresser shop/beauty salon, a mortuary, a linen store, a clean- ers room, a garbage room and a switch room A Dementia Unit with treat- ment room, nursing station and specifically designed garden, will be set up in a separate unit from the rest of the residence. Agreement with head of school It is envisaged that vehicular access to the Scheme will be from the ring road of St Thomas More College, Girls' Secondary School last year. This arrange- ment has been agreed both by the Headmaster of the School and by Transport Malta. The Scheme will provide 94 car parking spaces (14 at ground f loor and 80 at basement level). The newly set-up Environment and Resources Authority is ob- jecting to a proposed four storey old people's home in an ODZ area in the vicinity of the Santa Lucija state school. ERA informed Healthmark Care Services that it is objecting to the proposal "since it would result in urban sprawl and land take-up at the expense of unde- veloped rural land ". The developers were also in- formed that if they intended to proceed with the project they would have to prepare a full En- vironmental Impact Statement. At a meeting organised by the Santa Lucija council in Decem- ber, 2014 Robert Sarsero, the architect of the proposed old people's home, revealed that 250 beds could be leased to the gov- ernment while some 100 could be rented directly by the devel- oper. Sarsero, who is also a member of MEPA's Appeals Tribunal, referred to various precedents where permits for homes for the elderly and other developments were granted in ODZ, a case in point being the home for the el- derly in Mellieha. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt over 'unofficial' Facebook page improved, including through the employment of others workers. Mater Dei Hospital is in the pro- cess of seeking a simpler way of storing patients' health informa- tion as the Medical Records De- partment is running out of space. It is thus being recommended that information pertaining to the health of patients is scanned and saved electronically, reducing the volume of the physical files and the related storage space required. The hospital holds a consider- able amount of personal data and has a retention and disposal policy personal clinical patient data that exists at the Medical Records De- partment. However, MDH lacks an internal policy for the secure disposal of any confidential data stored electronically. The audit found that, even though the Clinical Patient Ad- ministration System (CPAS) ap- plication was launched in 2013, the old Patient Administration System (PAS) is still running and hosted at MITA's MDH data cen- tre. Moreover, the PAS application is not being kept in sync with the current CPAS application: only some data, such as patient de- mographics and future appoint- ments, was migrated from the previous PAC application. Users from different depart- ments also reported a number of problems when updating the patient interface module on the CPAS, including the age of the pa- tient which is not calculated auto- matically despite the date of birth having been inputted. The NAO observed that certain users faced difficulties in finding available slots to be allocated in "a particular clinic", when setting up an appointment. According to the NAO, this was the result of an overload in patient appointments, especially within the Outpatients Department. "If a consultant requests that a particular patient is admitted to MDH for a follow-up on a particu- lar date but all available slots on the CPAS are booked, the clinical nurse has to get in contact with the CPAS team to add a new slot," the report found. The NAO went on to recom- mend that MDH evaluates the possibility of providing specific users with further access in order to allocate new slots. The myHealth application does not offer the functionality for par- ents or guardians to view medi- cal records of children less than 14 years of age under their care. Patients over the 14 years of age may submit a request to view their medical record, making use of the new e-ID.