General Secretary from the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has confirmed with The Malta Independent that negotiations with the government over the issues surrounding the concession sale of three state hospitals has stalled, leading to the union to prepare the issuing of directives.

Last year, government announced it would engage in a Public-Private-Partnership with a previously unknown company with no track record in the medical industry to maintain and operate Karen Grech Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. The company, Vitals Global Healthcare, has now sold off the concession to a Boston-based healthcare firm listed on the stock exchange called Steward Healthcare.

Earlier this week, on 29 January, the MAM confirmed that it registered a trade dispute with the government in view of “the breach of the collective agreement” over the VGH deal with Steward Healthcare for the transfer of concession.

In comments with this newsroom, Balzan said that “negotiations are stalled so we [MAM] are proceeding with preparing directives. As previously stated, it will be widespread, meaning across the public health care service”. When pressed, he said that the directives will be announced later today.

Last Monday, the MAM explained that the breach in the collective agreement pertains to the transfer being made without prior notice, consultation and agreement with the union.

The articles breached because of this secret concession are the following, MAM said:

1.“Give prior notice of not less than six weeks to MAM whenever it intends to contract any private entity to manage professional medical services at any health care facility providing free health care to the public on behalf of GoM, including outsourced services; and”

“Provided further than any present instances of outsourcing and PPPs, including public health service delivered at the Sites, shall be discussed in specific meetings, to reach a specific detailed agreement in line with the principles established in this section by the end of December 2017.”

21. (a) GoM shall not, without following the procedure established in clause 1, directly or indirectly privatize the operation of medical services provided in part or in full, which are part of the government funded public health services.

The MAM council resolved that

1. MAM to order widespread industrial action in all health sectors in Malta in Gozo as from Monday 5th February

2. MAM shall convene and inform of all its sections and explain the reasons for and discussed the planned directives with members

3. Authorizes the MAM to make alliances and possibly synchronize industrial actions with other trade unions in the health care sector

4. Authorizes the MAM to proceed with any legal action as necessary in the national and European law courts.

In a statement, the government said that MAM is no consistent. It first was against Vitals runningnte hospitals because, in its opinion, it did not have the necessary experience. Now it was against the transfer of the concession to Steward Healthcare, which has great experience in the health sector.

The government offered MAM the possibility of seeing all the contracts signed with VGH, but the union refused the offer. The government said it is prepared to take all legal action to defend its interests if MAM were to proceed with strike action.

In reply, the Medical Association of Malta said it is surprised Minister Fearne is losing his cool and threatening MAM with legal action for insisting that clauses in the collective agreement 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.

MAM said it had a right to be consulted 6 weeks before and government contracts a private entity, andgovernment “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. These clauses are there to have proper consultation which are healthy in a democracy and to avoid disputes.

MAM has continued to believe that one must learn 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.