Details on the deal between Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward Healthcare have yet to be disclosed to unions representing workers in the health sector.

Speaking to the Times of Malta after a meeting with Opposition leader Adrian Delia yesterday, a day after a debate on the deal was held in Parliament, union officials said that although the government had assured them that working conditions would not be impacted, they were in the dark on what would happen now.

The government announced a few days before Christmas that Vitals had sold its 30-year concession to American operator Steward Healthcare, with Health Minister Chris Fearne referring to the new operator as “the real thing”.

However, little information has been divulged since.

The Medical Association of Malta’s general secretary Martin Balzan said the stand of the doctors’ union remained unchanged, insisting that the government should put all negotiations about the concession sale on hold pending the outcome of investigations into the deal by the Auditor General.

Dr Balzan said Mr Fearne’s comments in Parliament on Wednesday, that he would be showing a copy of the contract to the Opposition once it was completed, further reinforced the MAM’s position that all talks should stop until the National Audit Office completed its work and published the findings.

“Previously, we were getting conflicting reports [on whether the deal with Steward was concluded or not] from Vitals and the government but now Mr Fearne himself has confirmed that the negotiations are still ongoing,” he said.

Dr Balzan noted it was ironic that while the Prime Minister referred to “credibility” and “national interest”, they did not apply to the manner in which the Vitals deal was being handled.

“It doesn’t reflect much credibility when you ask for an investigation but then don’t even wait for its outcome,” he remarked.

Similar comments were made by the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin – Voice of the Workers, whose CEO, Josef Vella, told this newspaper that members were not aware of what was happening.

“It was evident during the meeting [with Dr Delia] that none of the unions have been in touch with the new operator and that we all have yet to understand how this will impact workers,” Mr Vella said.

He pointed out that, as was the case with the Vitals deal on the concession to run three State hospitals, the union would not be accepting any agreement unless it knew all the details in advance. This, he said, had been in an issue in the past with the government refusing to supply details of the contract it had with VGH.

The general secretary of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Colin Galea pointed out that it was still unclear how the transfer to Steward would impact nurses and midwives, insisting that the union wanted to meet with the new operator soon.

“Lack of information brings about anxiety and, since their job will be to manage the hospitals, we want to know what their management style will be,” Mr Galea said.

The union had reached some agreements with Vitals, including one on a scientific investigation into patient-nurse ratios.

The General Workers’ Union was the only body not to express concern on the deal, with its general secretary, Josef Bugeja, saying they were confident workers’ conditions would be honoured.

“Our concern is the workers’ conditions and we have been assured that these will be honoured, so we are not worried in any way,” Mr Bugeja said.

“We haven’t had meetings with Steward but we have been told that all agreements must be honoured and we are confident they will be.”

PN leader Delia says he is worried

Opposition leader Adrian Delia said he came out of the meeting with union representatives yesterday more concerned than before. He said wanted to meet the unions to better understand the impact the deal was having on workers.

“I wanted them to prove my conclusions wrong but this was not the case,” Dr Delia said.

“I asked each of them what Vitals had brought to the table and not one of the unions could say anything.”

He said he could not understand how Health Minister Chris Fearne could promise to provide a copy of the agreement between Steward Healthcare and Vitals Global Healthcare when he had repeatedly insisted this was a business-to-business deal.

“How is he going to show us the agreement if this is between Vitals and Steward? Even so, publishing the agreement after the deal is done is useless because all decisions would have already been taken,” Dr Delia remarked.