Rehabilitation Centre to be based at Zammit Clapp

A rehabilitation centre which was due to be built on the grounds of St Vincent de Paule Home is likely to be located at Zammit Clapp Hospital.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli said this morning that it made more sense for the rehabilitation centre to be moved to Zammit Clapp.

He added that the authorities were also considering moving the Gzira health centre to Zammit Clapp because its current location was not welcoming and had accessibility problems.

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat revealed earlier this month that government plans to transfer the Oncology Department from Boffa Hospital to Zammit Clapp had been dropped in preference to the building of a new Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital.

Mr Dalli made his comments when he met a delegation of the National Commission, Persons with Disability, who presented him with the commission’s annual report on equal opportunities. One of the complaints in the report is about the lack of accessibility to public buildings.

The minister said Cabinet was to consider a report by an inter-ministerial committee on the ratification of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.