Police constable Simon Schembri is set to be the first patient to receive a bionic hand and an artificial arm from the new centre of orthotics and prosthetics at St Luke’s Hospital.

Minister for Health Chris Fearne announced this during the inauguration of the new centre. Saying it would bring “St. Luke’s back to life”, he confirmed that the new centre would be catering for up to 16,000 patients a year due to illnesses like diabetes, which often lead to someone losing a limb.

The orthotics and prosthetics centre is run by US health giant Steward Health Care in collaboration with a US company called Medical Centre Orthotics and Prosthetics.

The two US companies have pledged to speed up waiting times for orthotics and prosthetics from an average of two months to an average of one week.

Steward earlier this year purchased a government concession for the operation and upgrading of St Luke’s, the Gozo Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital that had originally been signed with Vitals Global Healthcare.

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]