Updated | MAM surprised at minister ‘losing his cool’

The Medical Association of Malta has expressed its surprise at deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne ‘losing his cool and threatening’ MAM with legal action, for insisting that clauses in their collective agreement with the government are respected.

“Industrial action in the health sector is regulated by a section on essential services which MAM will certainly respect and make sure that no patient suffers or is harmed,” the doctor’s association said in a statement on Friday night.

On Saturday, Fearne said that MAM had agreed to meet with the ministry to discuss a way forward, after having orignally refused to do so.

MAM stressed that it had a right to be consulted six weeks before the government contracted private operators to work in the health sector, insisting that government “must engage with MAM to discuss the key elements of the private entity’s involvement in the provision of such service.”

“This process must occur BEFORE contracts are signed and not AFTER and MAM appeals to the government to respect signed agreements with trade union and be honest in its public statements,” it said.  “These clauses are there to have proper consultation which are healthy in a democracy and to avoid disputes.”

MAM said it continued to believe that lessons must be learnt from “the errors of the Vitals deal, which has clearly failed”.

“A fresh consultation process would be in the national interest and assure honest citizens that national funds are spent wisely to offer the best care to patients,” said MAM.

On Friday, the government accused MAM of being inconsistent, insisting that after stating it was against Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) running St Luke’s, Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital because it had no medical experience, it was now saying it did not want them to be run by Steward Health Care, a company it said had considerable experience in the sector.

"MAM is demanding that the transfer not take place and therefore that VGH continue running the hospitals," read a statement.

Moreover, the government said that MAM had been offered the opportunity to review all the contracts in their entirety, however the invitation had not been accepted.  "After these talks, and despite the government offering to show MAM the contracts, it insisted on pressing on with its industrial dispute."

The government said it would be reserving the right to take legal action, in the interests of Maltese and Gozitan patients.