The Medical Association of Malta and UHM Voice of the Workers today welcomed the government’s change of heart and its decision to submit the full contracts with Vitals Global Health Care for scrutiny by the Auditor General, a week after there seemed to be stiff resistance to this from Government MPs on the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament to the joint letter by MAM and UHM.

Common sense prevailed, the two organisations said in a statement.

The unions have insisted for this to be done before they could commit themselves to this venture when representing the interests of its members. The unions will follow this process closely and re-iterate that they can only collaborate with this project once this process is concluded to their satisfaction.

On another note, the unions expressed their suprise at public statements made last Sunday by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that the Gozo General Hospital isonly a glorified health centre. Such statements are misleading to the general public, cause concern to potential patients and demotivate the professional staff that strive to provide a high standard of care at Gozo General Hospital.

Gozo General Hospital has fully equipped operating theatres that were recently refubished using EU funds and major operations are performed by surgeons working full time in Gozo, and visiting surgeons from Malta, the unions said. There are also fully equipped coronary and intensive care units.Highly complex medical cases are handled in Gozo, and  patients are only rarely transferred to Malta.

There has been little, if any, change since Vitals Global Healthcare took over the management of the hospital despite the millions paid by the Maltese government, the unions said. While it was fully licenced as a government institution by the regulator, unfortunately, Vitals Global Healthcare has failed to even apply for such a licence since they assumed its management in May 2016.