Information on the conditions reached by our national health services are starting to emerge. Inspite of unaccounted for tens of millions and of a hypothec on the concession tied up to a farmers’ bank, the operator of three of our hospitals had no money to pay salaries to the 80 odd employees it was responsible for.
A hundred million euro in public money and they could not change a light bulb.
And the government knew this all along. They rushed to Parliament to cover VGH over while they tried to sell the concession onto someone else knowing full well what was going on and hiding it from the rest of us.
In the meantime patients at Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General were being treated by a hospital that could not replace the tea when it ran out.
It’s not enough that they were in contempt of country. They were probably in contempt of court as well. The Times of Malta report this morning quotes unnamed senior VGH officials who gave details of the dire situation our hospital manager was in and is in.
“At the moment all procurement of medical equipment is on hold until Steward Health Care takes over and are on the ground. We were told that although the agreement was signed, it could not take effect before a pending injunction was lifted.”
Come again? So the agreement was signed while a court-ordered injunction against exactly that was in place. That is a defiance of a court order. An injunction doesn’t stop a contract “from taking effect”. An injunction stops you. That’s it.
We don’t know Steward Health Group yet. We’re finding out what they think of our institutions though.