Doctors’ collective agreement bars Fenech from public service

The renowned cardiologist Albert Fenech will not be able to work at Mater Dei’s cardiology department, because of a collective agreement signed with the doctors’ union MAM (Medical Association of Malta) that allows surgeons to work beyond retirement only where no suitable candidate is found to fill their post.

MAM president Martin Balzan confirmed on Saturday that the collective agreement allows Mater Dei to retain doctors after retirement age, on a year by year basis.

However the collective agreement, signed before the 2013 elections with the MAM, states that the renewal of contracts beyond the statutory retirement age will only be considered “after no suitable candidate would have been found to fill the post in a recruitment process initialised at least six months prior to the date of retirement.”

News of Fenech’s retirement was met with concern by patients irked by the retirement clause, which forces surgeons out of the public service unless there is a backlog of operations that requires additional human resources. 

On Saturday the government issued a statement saying that the procedure invoked with respect to Fenech’s retirement was laid down in the collective agreement.

“The MAM’s comments to the press confirmed that a medical consultant can be retained after retirement age if a recruitment process for the same position is unsuccessful.

“In the case of the cardiology department, a consultant was employed on 1 September, 2014 while another consultant was selected in the same recruitment call in August. Today, the department employs enough consultants to be able to operate as efficiently as possible,” the government said.

It also pointed out that Fenech had his contract renewed in 2014 for one year, albeit on a reduced 20-hour basis every week.

Fenech, who was elected an MP in 2013 for the Nationalist Party, has however complained of having been “removed over personal pique and internal politics”, accusing cardiology chairman Robert Xuereb of having effectively ruled him out for any future cardiac surgeries.

His departure, although under a strict application of the collective agreement that leaves no elbow room for veteran surgeons, has baffled patients whose lives were saved by Fenech.

The same happened with another surgeon in 2011, Labour MP Anthony Zammit, who had requested an extension to his contract at Mater Dei beyond pensionable age, but was turned down.

The health ministry had then stated that it was government policy that when consultants reach the age of 61, they are considered as having reached retirement age. “Should there be the need for a replacement, the Health Department issues a call for applications accordingly. Such a procedure provides an opportunity for younger Maltese specialists to achieve a consultant status.

“In line with this, the policy of the Department of Surgery has been not to extend the contracts of consultants beyond the age of 61. This has applied in the cases of previous surgeons and will also apply in the case of Mr Anthony Zammit. In fact, over the last few weeks a considerable number of Maltese surgeons have already applied and been interviewed,” a ministry spokesperson had said.

Earlier last week, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil conjured up the case of Albert Fenech’s retirement as an example of the way the Labour administration dealt with critics.

In 2014, Albert Fenech filed a judicial protest against the parliamentary secretary for health over being forced into part-time work in what he claimed was a breach of policy. 

The 61-year-old MP was evidently hurt by the decision to have him resign. “I was first stopped from carrying out the very surgical procedures I introduced to Malta and which I taught to new surgeons – including Xuereb himself – and then they reduced the number of operations I could do from two daily to one, until I was completely stopped.

“I feel insulted and hurt,” Prof. Fenech said. 

Fenech also said that since the 2013 election of Labour in government, “a political decision” was taken to split up the department between cardiology and cardiac surgery – formerly fused under the chairmanship of Alex Manché – so that another surgeon could be made departmental head. 

He added that at least nine out of 11 cardiac consultants opposed such changes. 

Since then, Fenech was given a contract that limited his work at Mater Dei to just 20 hours a week to operate on his patients. “I’m like a mechanic without a garage and his tools. They’ve taken everything away from me.” 

Fenech had words of praise for Mater Dei CEO Ivan Falzon and clinical director Joseph Zarb Adami for their support. “Despite this, it seems like the cardiology chairman has some kind of influence that allows him to do what he wants.”