By the end of this month, Steward Healthcare will exit its operations at the Gozo General Hospital, PN MP Chris Said has claimed.

“They took the money for this, and now they are going to leave Gozo without having laid a single stone for this hospital,” Said said.

Said said Steward has been in active discussions with the government over the past few months. He noted that Steward leaving the operations was a significant failure of the government, urging authorities to return the hospital to the state.

Steward Healthcare was brought in to save a failing concession granted to Vital Global Healthcare to manage the operations of three state hospitals, the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital.

VGH was forced to sell off their operations to Steward Healthcare just 21 months after starting amid growing financial debt, which stood at €36 million by the end of 2017. Its CEO, Ram Tumuluri, reportedly still made off with a €5 million bonus.

It has been revealed that the government signed a memorandum of understanding months before a request for proposals was even announced. Disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi led the project.

An un-redacted contract revealed that taxpayers were paying VGH around €188,000 a day (€70 million a year) to provide hospital beds to the state, €1.2 million a year for the Barts medical school and a further €1 million for their helicopter service.

Steward Healthcare was brought in to replace them. They were given certain assurances by the government, namely Mizzi and then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat when they were brought in to save the failing concession.

This included a massive €100 million buyout should the concession be rescinded and a secret €8 million bank guarantee (which has since been waived).