Tender for Mater Dei rooftop helipad issued

Health Ministry issues tender for construction of a helipad and rooms at roof-level at Mater Dei even after previous claims made by government that pilots feared wind currents.

30 October 2011, 12:00am

1 min read

The Health Ministry issued a call for applications to a tender for the construction of a helicopter pad and rooms, including engineering services, at roof level at Mater Dei Hospital.

Permits for the construction were approved back in June this year by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to relocate the helipad in order to make room for the Life Sciences complex to be built close to the hospital.

Plans for the relocation of the current helipad have been in the pipeline since July 2010 when permits were submitted to MEPA.

The Health Ministry said that safer landing and take-off options in all weather conditions would be made available with a helipad on the roof of the Accident and Emergency Department block.

Transferring patients to the same department would also be more efficient because patients on stretchers could be placed in an elevator directly linked to the A&E block. This would eliminate the additional ambulance trip after the helicopter trip.

Former PN health minister John Dalli had said in 2008 parliamentary question that the helipad was always intended to be located on the roof of the hospital. However, plans were dropped due to patient safety and expenses.

In 2007, Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea had said that pilots fearing wind currents generated by the nearby valley in rough weather had actually requested that the helipad be built at ground level.

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Sa fejn naf jien l-istruttura tal-bini ma tiflahx!! Issa kif giet tiflah?

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Dr Alfred Sant had provided for such hali pad but which was made away with by the following EFA government who decided not only to put the heli pad where it is today but also to decrease the number of beds fromm 1000 to 800. All this because it was included by a labour government. Now we are reaping the fruits of folly when we returned a vengeful right wing party back into government.

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Using common sense and basic safety knowledge, it does not make any sense that a helipad is located on the roof of a hospital. Apart from, again this time using common sense and financial knowledge, requiring bigger budgets to complete. But then, any excuse to keep milking from the exchequer is plausible at this point in time.