The government didn’t inform, let alone consult, doctors about hospital changes

Health Minister Konrad Mizzi, seen here with his controversial wife, who lives on the other side of the world in Shanghai.

A few days ago, the Medical Association of Malta (effectively the doctors’ union) called a press conference and issued a warning to the government that it should “proceed with caution” in its plans to introduce public-private partnership operations in state hospitals.

Speaking to the press, MAM president Gordon Caruana Dingli said the doctors have “drawn red lines which the government should not cross”.

“There should be total separation between the public and the private,” he said. “We don’t want any blurred lines. Our doctors will not accept management by the private sector. Public healthcare should not be managed by private interests.”

He said that the Medical Association of Malta is making its position clear now that the government has chosen a private bidder and is in talks for a public-private partnership at Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Hospital.

Martin Balzan, MAM secretary-general, said that the PPP experience in UK healthcare had failed, with the British government having to bail out private investors in the National Health System (NHS). This incurred more burdens for the taxpayer.

Balzan also said that the only information the Medical Association of Malta had was from the newspapers. The government had promised the Association that it would be involved in the negotiations, but this had not happened. The government had given the MAM minimal information and sometimes in conflicting and contradictory versions.