Mater Dei rooftop helipad moved to Medical Acute Ward 5

Health Minister Joe Cassar confirmed in parliament that the helicopter pad will not be constructed on the Accident and Emergency Department block but on the Medical Investigation and the Medical Acute Ward 5.

Cassar was replying to a parliamentary question raised by Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro Preca. He said that the block is situated next to the casualty block.

"The helipad will be built where it was originally meant to be," the health minister said, adding that the tendering process is ongoing.

The 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 were issued in October 2011.

Permits for the construction were approved last June 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 had 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," the ministry had said.

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.