After Vitals fiasco, doctors’ union want stop on health privatisations without consultation

The Medical Association of Malta has filed a judicial protest against the privatisation and outsourcing of further government medical services.

The MAM said it was in favour of measures that reduced hospital waiting lists for IVF or other medical procedures, by outsourcing these to other private facilities.

But it said that the harsh experience of the failure of the Vitals PPP meant that it was necessary to scrutinise any similar initiative for the privatisation of medical services by the government.

The MAM said it was seriously concerned that plans by the government to privatise IVF treatment would turn out to be another attempt by a private entity to recoup profits from health investments at significantly higher prices than European IVF services.

The MAM said it wanted greater transparency from the government on any privatisation initiative.

“After the 2018 doctors strike in protest at the transfer of the government hospitals to Steward, an agreement was signed where the government promised to carry out meaningful consultation with MAM on any future privatisation and bound itself to obtain MAM consent on any privitisation or outsourcing,” MAM president Martin Balzan said.

“This agreement has not been respected by the government, which has published tenders without any consultation or indeed obtained consent as stipulated.”

MAM said its judicial protest was crucial in the light of the Vitals-Steward PPP fraud, insisting that any privatisation of medical services had to abide with signed agreements, have patients’ best interest at their heart and with proper scrutiny of how taxpayer money is being spent.

“Malta’s main health infrastructure is now in crisis as a result of the €400 million  paid to Vitals/Steward. This crisis can only be solved with a holistic plan involving all the stakeholders,” Balzan said. “MAM calls on the government to stop further privatisation until proper meaningful consultation is complete.”