Health Minister defends outsourcing of emergency care, insists doctors’ union was consulted
Health Minister defends emergency care outsourcing agreement, rejects doctors’ union’s claim it was not consulted and says government taking proactive steps to ease pressure on Mater Dei Hospital

Jo Etienne Abela has rejected claims by the doctors’ union that government did not inform it of plans to outsource emergency services to private hospitals.
In parliament on Monday, the Health Minister listed several instances of consultation, including speaking with the Medical Association of Malta on 27 February 2024, a presentation given to the union in May and the eventual publication of the tender in July.
Abela denied the government did not want to be transparent, comparing MAM’s criticism to that of “an opposition newspaper”.
MAM is currently locked in dispute with the government over an outsourcing agreement that had to kick in last week. The union has directed its members not to authorise the transfer of patients seeking non-serious emergency care at Mater Dei Hospital to private hospitals. It plans to escalate industrial action from tomorrow but has not yet outlined what form this action will take.
The union is insisting the government did not consult it, as per agreement, on the public-private partnership.
The dispute also took a personal twist when the minister attributed the union’s actions to MAM President Martin Balzan’s personal grievance for not having been promoted.
Speaking in parliament, Abela acknowledged ongoing concerns about waiting times in Mater Dei’s emergency department. He shared a complaint he had received from a father whose daughter had to wait for more than 15 hours to be seen by a medical professional. However, he added long waiting times are not unique to Malta, referring to similar challenges faced by the UK’s National Health Service.
He said the emergency outsourcing agreement would see patients being treated in three private medical facilities for non-serious emergency care thus easing the pressure on the only acute general public hospital. A change in policy at the emergency department will also see senior medical staff being the first point of contact for patients so that a treatment path can be identified at the earliest.
The government has plans to expand the emergency department at Mater Dei but this will take years to complete. Meanwhile, the outsourcing arrangement will ease the pressure on the public hospital.
Abela noted that significant progress in reducing long-term care patient backlogs at Mater Dei had been achieved. This helped free up more bed space for emergency and acute cases.
“Normally, we had 150 to 200 patients waiting for this type of care. Now, in winter, this number has become insignificant,” he said. “We have decreased the number from around 100 to less than 20.”
He attributed this improvement to arrangements made with care homes, including St Vincent de Paul.