Qawra regional health centre to serve the northern region

A regional health centre is being proposed in Qawra on land currently used as a car park in the vicinity of the Mavina, Santana and Euroclub hotels.

The proposed centre will include an underground car park for 864 cars, and a public open space.

This emerges from a Project Development Statement prepared by the Foundation for Medical Services, a government entity, as part of the planning process.

The new building housing the health centre will spread over a footprint of 3,500sq.m and will rise five floors. The two wings of the building will be connected by a glazed atrium with an H-shaped layout.

The development will require the demolition of an existing 360sq.m skate park and of several British era military structures.

The current 4,300sq.m surface car park which accommodates 120 cars will be replaced by four basement car park levels accommodating 864 cars.

The  Northern Regional Hub is intended to serve the needs of a catchment area comprising the localities of Bugibba, St Paul͛’s Bay, Mellieha, Mosta, and Rabat.

The Northern Hub like the Southern Regional Hub in Poala, will be providing 24/7 outpatient health services in the community offering speciality services such as dental care, cardiology, day care surgery, sexual health care, ultrasound, bone densitometry and echocardiography.

Providing these services in these regional hubs is meant to offload services from Mater Dei Hospital, thus reducing waiting times.

A Transport Impact Assessment estimates that the project will generate an average of 1,715 extra daily car trips to this area in Qawra. The project is also expected to create  approximately 138,000 cubic metres of excavation waste.

All of the existing trees and shrubs will be removed to accommodate the development. These include a line of mature palm and fig trees and  two protected trees – an Aleppo Pine tree  and a Cypress tree.  But the loss of these trees will be compensated by new trees in the open space surrounding the health centre.

The open space will also include a large water feature but will not include a new skate park to replace the existing one.

The area is zoned in the local plan for tourism purposes including hotels,restaurants, bars retail outlets as well as mixed use developments with a residential component.

In 2004 the site had been proposed for residential and commercial development by Maltacom plc. But the application was later withdrawn.

The Project Development Statement states that the entire site is now under the ownership of the Health Ministry through a lease agreement.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has recommended that the one storey high military structures found along the southern boundary of the site are integrated in the project because of their cultural heritage value.

But the Foundation for Medical Services rejected this proposal insisting that the retention of these structures “will jeopardize the proposed urban design including the planned landscaped open public spaces”.

According to the Project Development Statement these structures will be demolished in their entirety.