Government seeks design teams in first step towards new Gozo hospital

Government is scoping the market for potential interest in the design and construction of a new Gozo hospital, a process abandoned when the Steward Health Care concession was terminated.

The Health Ministry has launched a preliminary market consultation to identify potential service providers in healthcare design and construction. The ministry is seeking a full suite of services – architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, biomedical, ICT, medical planning, interior design, and specialist design.

The Gozo General Hospital has long been a hallmark of the Labour administration’s bitter experience with the Vitals, later Steward, privatisation that led to its annulment by a court over fraudulent procurement. Criminal charges have also been filed against former prime minister Joseph Muscat and a host of former ministers and public functionaries.

The government is now seeking submissions from design teams that can deliver a state-of-the-art healthcare facility and medical service.

Gozo General Hospital is the only hospital for the island of Gozo and is located outside the city of Victoria. Historically, the original structure was established in 1907 as a small infirmary. Its most significant expansion occurred in the 1970s, when the current Gozo General Hospital building was constructed, replacing the older structures. The latest addition being the Queen Mary University of London (Barts Medical School) finished in 2019. The construction of the medical school was the only substantial investment that resulted from the now defunct concession agreement.

As a result of the school, the hospital is now considered as a medical training hospital.

Earlier this year, Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela said a new hospital in Gozo would take five to seven years to build.

Last month, Abela announced that the first phase of the Gozo General Hospital regeneration project was underway.

The minister had said that a number of elderly patients currently in the Male Geriatric Ward, who require long-term care will be relocated to Dar San Ġużepp in Għajnsielem in preparation for the project.

Abela said once the relocation is complete, the final phase of geological tests on the site, where the new acute hospital with around 400 beds will be developed, will commence.

Works on a new Gozo hospital had not even started by the date of a civil court judgment that cancelled the privatisation deal back in February 2023. A new hospital was part of the contractual obligations.

The original concession was not only annulled, but a magisterial inquiry into the deal sparked criminal proceedings against Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri, former health minister Konrad Mizzi and dozens of other former ministers and civil servants. They all deny wrongdoing.