FUNDING FORMS PART OF THE 2014-2020 ALLOCATION

The European Union is to allocate €33m for the new regional health centre in Paola and €31 million for the second phase of the building of the new Mcast campus in Paola.

Malta has been allocated €72 million in EU funds for a new regional health centre in Paola and the construction of new Mcast facilities in Corradino.

The €39 million Paola Primary Health Care Southern Regional Hub project should be completed by 2023 at the latest, Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg told this newspaper yesterday. The EU funding forms part of the 2014-2020 allocation, however, if there were a justifiable delay, the project could be extended to 2023, he explained. The new centre will be constructed in the Schreiber area, and would eventually include an emergency theatre suite, a dental clinic, mental health services, a dementia clinic, ambulance services, a lifestyle clinic, and minor surgery facilities. With a yearly increase of around eight per cent, it is calculated that there will be around 600,000 patient contacts per year at this hub in 2020. Asked whether the new centre would replace the locality’s health centre, Dr Borg said services at the latter would be phased out only when the new centre was completed and started providing services.

Dr Borg also announced another project that would be benefitting from these European Regional and Development Funds: a €33 million project, of which €31 million will be EU funds, to kick off the second phase of the Mcast Campus Master-Plan in Corradino. The first phase was completed with an investment of €18.4 million in EU funds, and consisted of the construction of the Institute of Business and Commerce, the Institute of Applied Sciences, and the Student House, including an underlying car park. The new project includes the building and construction faculties within the Institute of Engineering and Transport, the Mcast Resource Centre, and the Institute of Information and Communication and Technology. The engineering institute building will be made up of six floors, with an overall footprint of 1,460 square metres. It will host laboratories, workshops and project rooms, classrooms and a drawing room among others. The resource centre – which will be a multi-purpose building – will house the innovation and entrepreneurship department, apprenticeship and work-based learning, and the library.