Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) is a healthcare company based in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. It manages

Public–private partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Review, Public Administ ...

s and works with

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry , mottoeng = Temper the bitter things in life with a smile , parent = Queen Mary University of London , president = Lord Mayor of London , head_label = Warden , head = Mark Caulfield , students = 3,410 , undergrad = 2,23 ...

Hospital contract controversy

In 2014 it "formulated a bid for the management and administration of a number of hospitals in the Maltese Islands". In November 2015, the company was given the contract by Maltese authorities. The choice of giving the contract to VGH was controversial, as the company had only formed recently and did not have any experience managing health care facilities. The contract terms were also considered biased with the government having to bail out VGH if it got into debt and it would cost €100 million plus pay company debts to buy the contract back. By the end of 2017, the company was deeply in debt, even though it had been paid 52.7 million euros by the Maltese government. In 2017 VGH was paid €75 million to run the hospitals, but incurred costs of €94 million, resulting in a loss of €18 million, up from a loss of €6 million in 2016. VGH was being investigated by investigative journalist

Daphne Caruana Galizia Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (; 26 August 1964 – 16 October 2017) was a Maltese writer, journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist, who reported on political events in Malta. In particular, she focused on investigative journalism, repor ...

before her murder in October 2017. Three Maltese Government Ministers at the time,

Edward Scicluna Edward Scicluna (born October 12, 1946 in Rabat, Malta) is a Maltese economist and politician. Scicluna assumed the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Malta as from 1st January 2021 for a five-year term. Biography Education and priv ...

Chris Cardona Christian Cardona (born 1972) is a Maltese former politician and lawyer. He was a Member of Parliament for the Maltese Labour Party and was elected Deputy Leader for Party Affairs in 2016. He served as Malta's Minister for the Economy, Investme ...

and

Konrad Mizzi Konrad Mizzi (born 4 November 1977) is a disgraced Maltese politician and served as a Member of Parliament until 2022. He served as Minister for Energy and the Conservation of Water between 2013 and 2014, Minister for Energy and Health from 2014 ...

, face investigation regarding VGH taking control of the three hospitals under a contract to last for 30 years in 2015.

Ownership

VGH ownership was said to be the "Bluestone Group" however it now appears it was controlled by the Bluestone Special Situations #4 Limited (BVI) which in turn is owned by BVI company Asia Harimau Investments Ltd which is owned by Mark Edward Pawley, a senior advisor to Oxley Capital Group. Other parties received share option agreements granting them rights to percentages of shares in VGH without showing up as owners of VGH. When VGH Malta was created, an identically named company was established in Jersey, together with 11 other companies, Sri Ram Tumuluri is named as an investor who created the Jersey companies. The Jersey companies included ones designed to support a bid for a similar style VGH hospital projects in Kosovo and Montenegro. VGH was sold to Steward Global Healthcare in January 2018 for a nominal €1, the sale precipitated a doctors' strike. VGH received €50 million from the Maltese government to allow the sale to go through.

References

Health care companies of Malta {{Improve categories, date=July 2021

Hospital contract controversy

Ownership

See also

References