A new agreement between Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) and a new healthcare provider who bought out VGH has been signed.

VGH currently runs three of Malta's hospitals - St Luke's Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and the Gozo General Hospital. VGH is being sold to a major US company called Stewart Medical Group. Health sector sources told this newsroom that government sat in on the deal to ensure that the concession obligations would be adhered to. Sources also said that the two companies have been in talks for around a month. 

The government, in a statement, welcomed the agreement signed between Vitals Global Healthcare and United States-based healthcare operator Steward Health Care.

"The Government is pleased with the fact that the agreement will strengthen the ongoing work even further, which will continue to deliver free and world-class healthcare facilities in Malta and Gozo, namely new hospitals in Gozo, St Luke's and Karin Grech, as well as the creation of a Barts campus in Gozo."

"Steward Health Care is the largest private healthcare operator in the United States, where it is responsible for a total of 36 hospitals employing some 37,000 professionals."

The Government of Malta is assured that the projects started by Vitals Global Healthcare will all be delivered as stipulated by the original contracts.

"The agreement between Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward Health Care guarantees the continuation of work started by the former, in line with the standards the government set out in the PPP agreement. The agreement will be preserved in its entirety," the government statement read.

"The insertion of a new operator in our healthcare system will in no way affect its main pillar-our healthcare service was and will remain free. In addition, Steward Health Care is bound, as was VGH, to retain the same conditions of work for all staff.  Furthermore, all agreements with unions will be retained."

The Government of Malta believes that the involvement of this US-based healthcare leader is a very important vote of confidence in the country.  "This will lead to the further upgrading of Malta's free universal healthcare system, thereby improving the health of our citizens and benefiting the local economy."

Back in September 2015, government and VGH signed a 30-year concession agreement for VGH to operate the three hospitals through a public-private partnership. The deal was signed by Minister Konrad Mizzi on behalf of government. The deal saw VGH sign an agreement to invest €220 million into the three hospitals.

VGH had pledged to transform the hospitals into state-of-the-art centres, increasing bed capacity and attracting medical tourism.

The agreement was seen as controversial, as VGH was not tried and tested in the health sector, however VGH held that it brought in persons with medical expertise to run its operations, and also had agreements with Partners Healthcare.

Government had also bound itself to purchase a number of beds as part of the deal to be used by the public healthcare system. As part of the concession agreement, the 1,600 employees who worked at the three hospitals remained on the public payroll, which was also a controversial decision.