(Adds ministry's reaction)

The Medical Association said that up to 50 percent of young doctors could be leaving Malta to work abroad this year, a figure which is substantially higher than that given by Social Policy Minister John Dalli in reply to a recent parliamentary question.

“The MAM is disappointed that the health authorities have failed to provide Minister John Dalli with correct figures on the number of doctors leaving the island,” union president Martin Balzan said in a statement.

“There are indeed a significant number of young medical graduates who have continued to leave our shores, and the figures quoted in parliament clearly do not include doctors who are on “emigration leave” or indefinite “unpaid study leave”.

Mr Dalli said that all 52 doctors who graduated from the University of Malta last year are still working in the public service. By comparison, there are still in Malta 29 of the 34 who graduated in 2003, 58 of the 65 from 2004, 60 of the 61 from 2005 and all 44 of those who graduated in 2006.

Dr Balzan said the MAM had already drawn the attention of the Health Division, that it needed to improve the collection of data on doctors who have long left Malta, and continue to appear on the books of the division.

This is data collected so far by MAM

Year - Graduated - Leaving - Remaining - Leaving (%)
2003 - 37 - 15 - 22 - 41
2004 - 68 - 28 - 40 - 41
2005 - 62 - 14 - 48 - 23
2006 - 47 - 15 - 32 - 32
2007 - 60 - 22 - 38 - 37
2008 - 52 - 21 - 31 - 40
Total - 326 - 115 - 211 - 35%

“Furthermore MAM is reasonably informed that around 30 young doctors and 15 final year students have plans to move to the UK as from July pushing the figure up to around 50%,” Dr Balzan said.

He said MAM welcomed the efforts of Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar and Minister Dalli, to formally introduce structured post graduate training. It hoped that this measure would greatly encourage doctors to stay in Malta.

The Social Policy Ministry in a statement this evening said that Mr Dalli was precise in his reply to the Parliamentary question.

It said the question asked in Parliament were: ‘How many doctors who graduated in the past five years are still employed in the public sector?’, and ‘How many renewed their licence with the Medical Council this year?’.

The minister gave the following figures:

The figures showed that those who graduated in 2006 and 2007 were still in the public service. The figures included those on leave since they still formed part of the public service.

The minister in his reply also said that this year all doctors employed in the Public Service had renewed their Medical Council licence.