Negotiations between the Malta Medical Association and the government on an agreement over doctors’ conditions have been stalled until after Easter, The Sunday Times of Malta is informed.
A second draft agreement specific to the hospitals’ privatisation is being examined by Steward, the US company that has taken over running the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General hospitals from Vitals Global Healthcare.
The agreements focus on guarantees and conditions for members of the MAM (the doctors’ union) and on the services to be provided to patients at the three hospitals.
Local representatives of Steward have seen the second document between the MAM and the government and sent it to their US bosses for feedback, MAM general secretary Martin Balzan said on Saturday.
Insisting that all parties were “inching closer and closer to an agreement,” Dr Balzan said there were no “great controversies” surrounding the first document.
Read: Vitals’ former CEO Armin Ernst is now president of Steward Health Care International
The three hospitals used to be run by Vitals until that company pulled out late last year, millions in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy.
The whole deal with Vitals has been controversial from start to finish, with serious questions being asked about what they have achieved with the millions paid to them by the government.
The last meeting between the health ministry and the MAM took place last week. Representatives from Steward were present to voice their concerns.
Expectations that the agreements would be signed imminently have so far not been fulfilled. Dr Balzan said nearly a month ago that the doctors’ union had been hoping to strike a deal by the end of that week.
But the discussions dragged on and will now resume after Easter break.
Having presented their proposals, the doctors are now expecting a reply from the Steward bosses, Dr Balzan said. Asked to explain the delay, he said the MAM wanted “a good, robust agreement that would stand the test of time”.
He would not elaborate on the agreement’s contents for fear of jeopardising the negotiations.
The MAM has been at loggerheads with the government for months over the concession. The union accused the government of breaching a collective agreement which, it said, obliged the latter to notify it of a transfer of the hospitals from Vitals to Steward six weeks in advance.
The government argues that the agreement was not broken since the contract with Steward did not constitute a new concession but only a change in ownership.
The MAM initially asserted that the agreement with Vitals should be rescinded. After a series meetings and industrial action, including a one-day strike, Dr Balzan said the union had moved away from that position. “Our preferred solution would have been for the government to have never given its consent,” he said, adding that the proposed solution would in principle achieve the same results.
Meanwhile, Steward Health Care met representatives of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses last week. The government, which oversaw the meeting, des-cribed it as “very positive”.
It said that the two sides had also discussed the working conditions and free health services in the hospital.