The deterioration of the island’s health centres has led to an exodus of young doctors and unacceptable patient waiting lists, according to the Medical Association of Malta.

In an official declaration of an industrial dispute, seen by the Times of Malta, the MAM today called for a number of “outstanding and unacceptable” issues to be resolved under threat of effective industrial measures.

The association said it was “very concerned” at the level of uncertainty faced by doctors at the centres which was leading to low morale and extended patient waiting time.

Among the issues raised was an “opaque and disorganised” vacation system which was resulting in doctors being denied time off.

Fewer GPs were being assigned to front line services than the established safe minimum, in spite of increased workloads. This, the association argues, went against the conditions set in the doctors’ collective agreement.

Worse still, part time doctors were facing “intimidation” as their job security was unclear. This, it added was an issue that had been raised in the past.

Turning to the patients’ experience at health centres, the association said sick patients were being made to wait in the same queue as those who only needed paperwork, resulting in unnecessary long waiting times.

The Floriana health centre was singled out for a lack of crowd control measures, which was seeing rowdy patients, fed up of waiting in line, disturbing consultants and even getting into fights.

MAM also raised concerns that complex tasks were being assigned to “very junior doctors” and that these were being provided with inadequate facilities.

The declaration was sent to the Health Ministry together with an urgent request for a meeting to address the issues.

Last year, MAM had called off a similar threat of industrial action at health centres related to a dispute over house visits.