The minister for Active Aging Jo Etienne Abela has said that the MUMN has refused or ignored several requests by his ministry to meet up and find a solution for the St Vincent De Paul Residence (SVPR) situation.

The minister was responding to a Parliamentary Question. "Similar request even go back to July", he said. The last meeting was on 20 October.

The ministry and the union have been at loggerheads since a report was issued after a patient who went missing from SVPR and was found dead in Birzebbugia. A nurse was suspended after the incident.

Also in his reply to PL MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Abela said that he will always remain available to meet with the union "because I always want to act in the best interest of the elderly and workers".

He said that he believes there is a solution that would benefit everyone, especially SVPR residents.

Abela said that the last meeting with the MUMN took place on the 20 of last October.

Earlier, the ministry had issued a statement, welcoming the court's decision to issue a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the MUMN's directives which were blocking new patients from entering SVPR and other government elderly residential homes. "This directive was affecting the provision of essential services to the elderly, and as a result was also creating problems to the health system."