[LIVE BLOG] Government to submit St Philip's Hospital contract before it is signed

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20:46 Sitting adjourned. Next PAC meeting to be announced once government presents PAC with copy of St Philip's hospital contract. Fenech said government has sent final contract copy to Golden Shepherd Group, and awaits response from the company.

20:36 Kenneth Grech says the first patients are expected to come from MDH and Karen Grech who would fill the first two halls. He also said that outpatients from occupational therapy and physiotherapy will also be transferred to SPH. He couldn't precise the time when this move should start but he said it should take "weeks". He said that "human resources will also be moved".

20:33 As Franco Debono passes another remark, Minister Gatt asks that the audience should remain silent. At this point, Debono tells Mangion to note in the minutes that Gatt had objected to his intervention. Mangion said that the objection had been noted.

20:29 Quoting from a MEPA study Alfred Camilleri - permanent secretary at the finance ministry - said that it was highly unlikely that impacts from different works to be carried on the hospital will affect permitting.

20:26 On the traffic impact assessment, St John said government's first priority was to submit an application and such assessments are carried out once this is submitted. He said that MEPA will essentially cover the extension and not the present premises of SPH. Mangion asks what sense did it make for government to invest in the hospital before MEPA permits are issued.

20:17 Grech says for the next meeting he'll provide the PAC with a list of the all the costs incurred as government planned to provide rehabilitation services at different premises.

20:07 Grech said the contract with Skanska only covered phase 1 and did not include phase 2 and phase 3. However, an intervention by Labour MP Michael Farrugia said that this was not true and €12 million were paid which included consultation on phase 2 and phase 3.

Fenech clarifies that government wanted to finalise the project and certain aspects from phase 2 and phase 3 were included in phase 1.

20:04 Coleiro Preca questions and reactions still ongoing. Among several others, she asks who is going to fork out the money for MEPA tariffs, if government is to extend SPH while it is still being rented. She also asks about the evaluation of the health and safety equipment, energy audit, and whether the ventilation system needs to be extended.

19:53 Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro Preca's turn to make questions. She presented a document by the Foundation of the Medical Services, issued before Mater Dei Hospital was built.  She said that money was paid to Skanska for its plans, which included the rehabilitation purposes on Mater Dei's grounds. Coleiro Preca asks what in total government has spent in studies and plans since government jumped from one different plan to another. She asks why no traffic impact assessment has not yet been carried out.

19:49 Asked why government didn't opt to build a rehabilitation hospital close to Mater Dei Hospital, St John explained that plans were already underway to use the land to built the oncology hospital.

19:46 Franco Debono returns.

19:43 Grech says it would cost government between €250 and €300 per bed every day if it were to rent beds for rehabilitation purposes from a private hospital. Currently, beds at Karen Grech were costing around €130.

19:38 St John confirms that adjacent to the site of the private hospital there's a land owned by government. The question was asked by Gatt who asked whether this could be use for parking.

19:36 Brian St John, CEO at Foundation of Medical Services, said that a project description statement has been sent to MEPA following its guidelines. He said that since they followed the procedure and MEPA's guidelines he didn't expect that problems should arise. Dalli questioned how they could discuss everything with MEPA, but then leave out parking area issues.

19:33 Franco Debono requests permission to intervene, however this was objected to by Transport Minister Austin Gatt. "Objection," Gatt said. And since the guidelines of the committee require the permission of all members, Debono's request was turned down. Mangion informed him that he could intervene if he replaces one of the members - Health Minister Joe Cassar (who is replacing Robert Arrigo), Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Nationalist MP Philip Mifsud or Gatt. Or by making a formal request asking to make questions. Debono has now left the meeting.

19:29 Dalli asks how the traffic plans and parking spaces will affect the use of St Philip's Hospital and whether there were any problems with MEPA. Mangion comments that it doesn't make sense for government to enter into agreement for a property without having the full certainty of permits.

19:18 Labour MP Helen Dalli is now asking how St Philip's Hospital was chosen. She said that the MRI equipment needs to be repaired at a cost of €150,000. Grech said he didn't know where that figure came from as analysis has not yet taken place. Grech said that the original plans were to use a part of St Vincent de Paul Residence. "However, we had problems with MEPA permits so we started looking for a land where to build," he added.

He said that SPH was slowing down in the services it was providing and "naturally we said we should look at it, among other places." Asked which were the other places, Grech said government never looked at St Luke's Hospital: "Our directions that we shouldn't look at St Luke's," he said.

Fenech intervenes: "Our long-term plan for St Luke's was that it should be cleared and that eventually an international call is issued. We were looking at the land as a potential future investment because of its strategic potential value. Government didn't want to start using it for rehabilitation purposes. For us it formed part of the national economic strategy rather than for its traditional use."

19:08 Questions start. First one to the Department of Health by Mangion who asked why Mater Dei Hospital wasn't enough to cater for the health services.

Kenneth Grech, the permanent secretary within the health ministry explained that Mater Dei Hospital was built for acute services and that rehabilitation purposes are separated from those provided by MDH. "The beds at the hospital were never planned to hold patients for rehabilitation. At the time when MDH started operating, Zammit Clapp hospital was acting as a rehabilitation hospital for patients over 60 years of age. However, we wished for a rehabilitation hospital that would also provide care for all ages," Grech said.

19:07 The committee, contrary to what Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said on Monday, has not yet been presented with a copy of the lease-and-buy deal. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said that the contract hasn't yet been signed. But once it is finalised, Fenech said government would have no problem in presenting it to the committee before it is signed. He said discussions were still ongoing.

19:05 Backbencher Franco Debono present at the meeting.

19:02 Chairman Charles Mangion reading out agenda. Health Minister Joe Cassar is also present.

19:00 PAC meeting should start soon. Labour's spokesperson for health Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has replaced Labour MP Evarist Bartolo on the committee.

18:32 The PAC sitting is expected to start in around half an hour.

18:30 During the parliamentary question time, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech informed Labour MP Leo Brincat that Golden Shepherd Group - owners of St Philip's Hospital - failed to register its accounts for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. "This information is public on the website of the registrar of companies," Fenech added.

Brincat's question to Fenech was to confirm whether the private hospital's directors were in breach of the submission of accounts as stipulated by the registrar.

MPs from the Public Accounts Committee today will hold a hearing on St Philip's Hospital, the private hospital government intends leasing and perhaps acquire for €12 million from the Golden Shepherd Group, which is led by former Nationalist MP and MEP candidate Frank Portelli, in a bid to increase current national health beds by 110. But some MPs have disagreed with the decision, saying the former national hospital St Luke's should have been refurbished to add close to another 500 beds to the current supply.