Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela has rejected claims made by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) that he personally took Cath Lab nurses at Mater Dei to Court on New Year’s Eve, insisting that the legal action was solely aimed at safeguarding patient safety and not at targeting nurses.
In a statement issued in response to MUMN’s accusations of “hypocrisy and double standards,” the Minister said he was not present at the law courts on New Year’s Eve and dismissed claims that he argued against nurses’ vacation leave rights.
“On New Year’s Eve, I was visiting my mother in Victoria, Gozo and I was most definitely nowhere near the Law Courts in Valletta,” Abela said, adding that while his name appears on the witness list compiled by the Ministry’s legal team, he would not hesitate to testify if summoned.
The Minister explained that the Ministry’s legal team requested his presence in Court on 12 December 2025, when the Ministry’s legal team presented arguments, but no witnesses were called.
He challenged MUMN to identify “one single instance” in which the Ministry’s lawyers spoke against Cath Suite nurses.
Abela said that the Ministry’s legal position focused on one issue alone: a directive issued by MUMN to halt cardiac operations at Malta’s only Cath Lab.
“The truth of the matter is that our legal team had but one single argument: the MUMN’s directive to halt any form of cardiac operation at the one and only Cath Lab in the Maltese Islands was illegal and disproportionate because the union had other avenues at its disposal,” he said.
He added that the Court upheld this argument, stating that alternative industrial action options were available to the union that would not have put patients’ lives at risk.
“Judge Hayman upheld that argument because it is the plain truth,” the Minister said, accusing MUMN of twisting the ruling into a narrative of “the Minister versus Cath Lab nurses.”
The dispute follows a statement by MUMN earlier on Monday, which said that the union had been taken to court on New Year’s Eve for safeguarding the vacation leave rights of nurses working in the Cath Suite.
The MUMN claimed that at least five elective Cath Suite lists were suspended over the festive period to allow doctors to take leave, while nurses were restricted from doing so, arguing that patient safety concerns were applied selectively.
Abela strongly rejected the suggestion that the case was directed at nurses, saying the issue had been misrepresented.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said, adding that he had personally undergone angiograms twice in the past.
While acknowledging that he has once again become a target of criticism from the union, Abela said his priority remains the welfare of patients.
“It matters not that I have become the MUMN’s pet target again. What matters to me is the supreme interest of patients, and that is exactly what I signed up for, without fear or favour,” Abela said.