Doctors demand halt to health centre testing before further talks

The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has filed a judicial protest over the continued rollout of a service at health centres which it says is the subject of an ongoing industrial dispute.

MAM said the dispute, registered in August 2026, concerned the introduction of point-of-care testing (POCT), arguing that the objections raised could not be addressed through training.

“These are not objections that a training session can answer,” MAM said. “They are objections to introducing a service that primary care is not built to provide.”

MAM argues that primary care is designed primarily for prevention, the management of chronic conditions and minor acute illnesses. Health centres are not emergency departments and are neither equipped nor staffed to function as such.

MAM said there was a particular risk in cases such as patients presenting with chest pain. Such patients need to reach a hospital emergency department as quickly as possible, but the introduction of testing at health centres could lead the public to believe that chest pain can be investigated there.

This could result in patients being kept at a health centre while tests are carried out, even though they would in most cases still need to be referred to hospital. MAM warned that the time lost in the process could make the difference between recovery and permanent harm.

The doctors’ association also warned that health centres are already under pressure, and that adding this type of testing could increase waiting times and queues for other patients.

The union said management had continued implementing the measure despite the industrial dispute, including by writing directly to doctors and asking them to set aside directives issued by MAM.

MAM also raised concerns over what it described as unacceptable industrial relations behaviour during the dispute.

According to the union, officials who attended a health centre to meet members were required to leave “in a very disrespectful way”. On another occasion, a union official was allegedly told that the police would be called if she did not leave the premises.

MAM said the right of workers to meet their union, and of a union to represent its members, was a right recognised in law and long respected between social partners in Malta.

The union said it could not accept what it described as an erosion of that right and added that it believed no trade union in Malta should do so.

MAM said it believed the dispute could be resolved only through “constructive and genuine dialogue”, rather than threats or unilateral decisions.

As a condition for further discussions, the union is calling for the Department to suspend all training initiatives and remove the equipment already installed at health centres pending a satisfactory resolution of the dispute.

MAM said it had filed a judicial protest with the law courts on Thursday over the issues it raised.

In the meantime, the union said it would maintain its directives and reserved the right to escalate industrial action if the Department continued with the rollout.

MAM appealed to the authorities to begin a process of de-escalation and consultation to resolve the dispute.

The union also expressed regret for any inconvenience caused to patients, but said the parties responsible for continuing the rollout bore responsibility for the disruption while the dispute remained unresolved.

“This dispute can be resolved at any moment,” MAM said, “by dialogue conducted in good faith rather than alongside a rollout that continues regardless.”