Doctors have approved the privatisation of the Gozo hospital and other healthcare facilities but their consent comes with strict conditions.

At an extraordinary general meeting of the Medical Association of Malta this week, doctors insisted that existing work conditions must be retained. They also said any development on hospital grounds should “follow established planning and environmental planning regulations”.

The government had exempted hospitals from the rigours of a full planning process through a legal notice published in August.

Doctors authorised their union’s council to finalise the agreement with the government, authorising it to take “whatever measure it deemed necessary” if government failed to honour any part of it. It stipulates that recruits taken on by the private operator must enjoy the conditions in force through the collective agreement.

The government is in talks with Vitalis Global Healthcare to conclude a public-private partnership which will see it take over the Gozo, St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals. Vitalis will have hundreds of beds dedicated to medical tourism and the government will buy services for the public system.

The Gozo hospital will also include a campus for Bart’s medical school. Doctors insist that doctors providing bedside teaching should be paid, as at present.

Other conditions include assurances that teaching facilities at the university will remain adequate and that Maltese students will not be disadvantaged when applying for the foundation programme.