The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has unanimously backed its top leadership in a confidence vote while announcing it has approved directives to open three health centres on Friday and Tuesday. 

In a statement on Thursday morning, MAM said the association's council had "unanimously approved a vote of confidence in its leadership," in particular its president Martin Balzan.

General secretary John Paul Tabone and its vice president Jeffrey Bonnici were also singled out alongside Balazan as receiving the confidence of the association.

The council also unanimously approved directives to doctors working in primary care on Friday and Tuesday, with health centres in Paola, Mosta, and Floriana set to open for 24 hours between from 8am those days.

The votes comes amid a period of dispute between doctors and health authorities, which earlier this month saw the doctors' union order doctors to stop transferring patients from Mater Dei Hospital to private hospitals because of a bed crisis, citing a lack of consultation.

Those directives came just days after the Health Ministry said a €14 million deal to send Mater Dei patients to three private hospitals was coming into effect. The deal is intended to ease overcrowding pressures at Mater Dei.

In an email sent to the Health Ministry at the time of the action, MAM said it had declared an industrial dispute due to "mismanagement" and a new private hospitals' outsourcing agreement.

Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela accused Balzan of going to war against the government because he did not qualify for a promotion at Mater Dei Hospital.

In parliament on Wednesday, the minister said the doctors' union has the power to stop "Vitals style" privatisation of the health service but it cannot stop the government from outsourcing health services. 

Note: An earlier version of this article cited a MAM statement accusing the government of having "stopped listening" on health matters. That statement was retracted by the association, which said it had been sent out by mistake due to a technical error.

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