The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) and the government have “registered more progress” and are at present working on the text of the agreement, MAM General Secretary Martin Balzan told The Malta Independent this morning.

“Yesterday there was more progress registered,” said Balzan, referring to yesterday’s meeting between MAM and the government. “We are at a phase now where we have our lawyers working on the text, and there will be another meeting tomorrow.”

“We are trying to find a text which will resist the test of time,” he said. “We want a text which is legally robust.”

MAM and the government will be meeting again in order to begin drafting the written agreement.

Progress had been registered in a meeting on Monday, following which,  strike directives planned for Thursday 15 and Friday 16 February were put on hold as a gesture of goodwill. The union has already called a first strike on Tuesday 6 February, which it described as a success.

The union and the government have been at loggerheads ever since Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) announced that it would be selling its 30-year concession to American company Steward Healthcare, after just 21 months, over what is believed to be serious mounting financial pressure.