Industrial action by ambulance drivers

Dr Stephen Brincat, chairman of the Department of Oncology at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital (The Sunday Times, June 9) put the burden of the industrial action by ambulance drivers on the UHM.

First of all Dr Brincat has no right to point his finger at my union and our secretary-general, Gejtu Vella about any difficulties being encountered by patients suffering from cancer.

Dr Brincat knows that the Health Division was informed in time by UHM about the industrial actions and so it was the duty of the Health Division to make alternative arrangements with private organisations so that patients suffering from cancer would be provided with the service of an ambulance. There are a good number of private ambulances which can be hired; obviously the Health Division has to pay for this service.

Dr Brincat should know that the UHM has made every effort to find a solution to the present dispute, even suspending the industrial actions for six long weeks. But though the UHM was led to believe by a Government quarter that agreement will be reached, another Government quarter has dug its head in the sand and simply said no. Our claim on behalf of the 50 ambulance drivers will have a total cost of only Lm9,750 yearly.

Dr Brincat has no right to point his finger at Mr Vella. Decisions in the UHM are taken collectively in a democratic way and not in an autocratic manner. What Dr Brincat should know is that Mr Vella has been involved in the UHM's efforts in the last industrial dispute between the government and the Medical Association of Malta which led to an agreement between the two sides.

As chairman of a medical department Dr Brincat got a Lm17 weekly rise as an allowance. So it was a pity that he did not go into the merits of the present UHM dispute with Government. He would surely have pointed his finger in the right direction.

Dr Brincat has no right to forget that in the 1977 MAM-Government dispute, UHM nurses went out on three days' strike in every section of the Health Services also in support of doctors and in this case not a single doctor condemned such actions. This is said for history's sake.

For the benefit of patients, Dr Brincat, as a former secretary-general of MAM, should have played his part well so that the present dispute between the UHM and Government is solved. But he has chosen the wrong path leading to no solution.