Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, together with Steward Health Care International President, Dr Armin Ernst, and Professor Steve Thornton from Queen Mary University of London, today officially inaugurated the Barts Anatomy Centre at Queen Mary’s Malta campus, marking a significant milestone in plans to improve the educational and health care offering in Gozo.
To this end, Steward Health Care Malta has invested €1.8 million in the Centre, which will be equipped with the most up-to-date facilities to support anatomy and clinical skills teaching. In the anatomy lab students will undertake practicals and tutors will lead demonstrations using anatomical specimens and models.
The Anatomy Centre includes a dedicated area for teaching anatomy through dissection and it will be equipped with facilities for clinical imaging, videos of surgical procedures and specialised computer imaging. The space includes a mortuary area, which has an embalming area with state-of-the-art refrigeration and storage facilities. The building also has a central courtyard that provides outdoor space and includes office accommodation for academic, technical and administrative staff.
Speaking at the inauguration, Dr Ernst explained that “the completion of the Anatomy Centre within a stringent 4-month period shows Steward Health Care’s commitment towards the Maltese & Gozitan community and towards our partners in this project over at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.”
Dr Ernst further explained that Steward was working hard on the main campus building, which he said was going up in record time. “During our last meeting with the Prime Minister back in July, he emphasized the need for us to focus on the site, and we have delivered. The anatomy centre is now complete and has been handed over to Queen Mary University of London and works on the main building are progressing according to schedule. We look forward to now shifting our focus to the hospitals and continuing on our plans to deliver high quality health care to the people of Malta and Gozo”, he added.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat commented that “the investment by Steward Health Care in this Anatomy Centre is a real statement of intent. Our health care partners are showing they mean business, and that they are set to deliver decisively on making Malta and Gozo among the best globally in medical education and health care services.”
Professor Steve Thornton, Vice Principle (Health), Queen Mary University of London, said: “We are incredibly excited to see our new state-of-the-art anatomy centre ready for teaching. These facilities, in combination with the high-quality educational programme that we’ve been delivering, will give our students the very best start to their medical careers and help train the next generation of doctors.”
The Anatomy Centre will soon start receiving Year 1 and Year 2 medical students carrying out their Medicine MBBS with Queen Mary University of London in Gozo. The University is currently using the Sir M.A. Refalo 6th Form College as a temporary teaching facility until their medical school on the Gozo General Hospital campus is completed in April 2019.
About Steward Health Care
Steward Health Care is the nation’s largest private, for profit physician led health care network in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Steward operates 36 hospitals in the United States and the country of Malta that regularly receive top awards for quality and safety. The company employs approximately 40,000 health care professionals. The Steward network includes multiple urgent care centers and skilled nursing facilities, substantial behavioral health services, over 7,900 beds under management, and approximately 2.2 million full risk covered lives through the company’s managed care and health insurance services. The total number of panelled lives within Steward’s integrated care network is projected to reach three million in 2018.
The Steward Health Care Network includes five thousand physicians across 800 communities who help to provide more than 12 million patient encounters per year. Steward Medical Group, the company’s employed physician group, provides more than six million patient encounters per year. The Steward Hospital Group operates hospitals in Malta and nine states across the U.S., including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah.