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After all the lights and fireworks after the lavish opening of the Mater Dei Hospital have dimmed out, the question that has to be asked is when will this grand edifice start to operate? One has to acknowledge the project’s excellence in that it is equipped with state of the art equipment throughout and although this cost a pretty penny, the end result cannot but bring smiles to the faces of many.
The gestation of the hospital has been a long and painful one. It began in the early 1990’s with the ill-fated San Raffaele project under a Nationalist administration followed on by the change of heart under a Labour government, which eventually changed the project into a major 850-bed hospital. After the Labour downfall of 1998 and a further period of flux, the Nationalist administration decided to go on with Labour’s plan and nine years after (and many more millions), the hospital has finally seen the light of day.
But as the tens of thousands who visited the hospital over the past weekend, we ask when will this project finally start functioning for the good of the nation? An investment worth a quarter of a billion liri is certainly the largest capital investment ever made in this country. And with calculations that Mater Dei will need over Lm 52 million a year to operate, the expenditure shoots up to over a billion liri after 15 years. Can the country afford that?
What is even more worrying is that there appears to be complete silence over the much vaunted migration plan. The Malta Medical Association remains tight lipped on its negotiations with the government although it recently told this newspaper that an agreement is not too far off. The situation is quite more alarming on the side of the nurses who are bandying about figures of at least 200 more nurses needed just to guarantee the service currently given at st Luke’s? Will everything be up and running by the end of the year? We very much doubt it.
The Mater Dei hospital is not just the only cog in the wheel of the whole health reform however. We must not forget the transfer of social cases to St Vincent De Paule and the migration of oncology services to Zammit Clapp from the soon to be phased out Boffa Hospital. For everything to proceed according to plan, everything must be done smoothly and with the least possible hiccups. For it is only through an affordable and qualitative health system that functions as efficiently as possible that the nation can finally reap the fruits of this magnificent new hospital.
Investing in Malta?
Prime Minister Gonzi’s speech at the glossy world investment conference at la Baule in Frnce certainly had the showings of a self-congratulatory exercise. Granted, foreign investment has grown substantially over the past years but if one eliminates the large investors from Dubai who poured money into Maltacom and Smart City then you would probably still be at the previous year’s levels.
A survey conducted by accountancy firm Ernst and Young (excerpts are reproduced in this newspaper) shows that labour laws remain one of the major sticking points for foreign investors with half of survey respondents stating that these are not attractive or have no opinion on the subject. Only half deem the laws as attractive. We should take a leaf out of France’s book, a country, which is finally brushing off the dust left over by years of protectionist governments and is planning reforms to its own archaic labour laws in the hope of attracting yet more investment.
The survey does show that we are top notch in the areas of human resources skills, productivity and our level of English speaking, an extremely important tool in this day and age. Costs are perceived to be rather high though and something must also be done on this front to add enticement to the foreign investor.
Although Malta remains an attractive investment destination on the whole, we still have to put our house in order to make it even more attractive and continue to generate much-needed jobs. What is positive is the fact that the ball seems to be rolling and with the recently announced port reforms, which should bring about reduced fees at our ports, then this can only create further opportunity for those who wish to come here and do business. |
