Barts medical school delayed by a year

The opening of a new medical school in Gozo by Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry has been delayed by a year due to the lack of progress on the building of a new campus. The medical school is now expected to start receiving its first 60 students this September.   When the agreement to build the new medical school was signed in 2015, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that it would be up and running by September 2016. While confirming that Barts’ first students would now be accepted as from September 2017, a health ministry spokeswoman said the new campus would only be available a year later. The Planning Authority is still considering the plans submitted. “It is programmed that the medical school building at the Gozo General Hospital will be ready in time for the following scholastic year [September 2018],” she added. No reply was forthcoming when she was asked where Barts would be operating from this September, since the new campus would not be ready until late 2018. This newspaper asked to see a copy of the signed agreement between the government and Barts, but the request was refused, because, the spokeswoman said, the contract was deemed confidential...