Unions representing workers in the health sector have yet to meet new hospital operator Steward Health Care, the Times of Malta has learnt, despite the takeover being finalised last month.
Speaking to the Times of Malta yesterday, officials from the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) and the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin – Voice of the Workers (UĦM) said that they have not yet met with anyone from Steward.
Similar comments were made by representatives of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) and the General Workers Union (GWU) who, despite being promised a meeting “soon”, have not yet been afforded a date when such a meeting would be taking place.
The announcement that Vitals Global Healthcare had sold its 30-year concession to Boston-based Steward Health Care was made by the government just days before last Christmas.
The United States company will take over the running of St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals. The three hospitals were handed to Vitals Healthcare almost two years ago.
According to MUMN general secretary Colin Galea, while the union has been promised a meeting with Steward “in the coming days”, it had yet to be given a final date when this would be held.
Asked whether any of the union’s affected members – which include nurses, social workers and physiotherapists – had met with Steward, the secretary general said that they had not but pointed out that there had not been any reports of changes at any of the hospitals.
Echoing similar comments, GWU general secretary Josef Bugeja also said that the union had been promised a meeting but had not yet been given a date.
Meanwhile, a UĦM spokesman said that the union had not yet been informed of any meeting.
“The ball is in their court now and it’s up to them to call a meeting. We haven’t heard anything yet,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the MAM, which has been in talks with the government in recent weeks in an attempt to end a dispute over the concession granted to Vitals, also confirmed that no meeting with the new operator has been held.
The MAM has accused the government of breaching a collective agreement clause stating that doctors should have been notified six weeks in advance about the concession transfer.
The government insisted that no such clause was broken as the agreement with Steward was not new.