Industrial action nurses were scheduled to begin tomorrow has been suspended at the eleventh hour.
In a brief statement, the Health Ministry said it and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses had agreed on the manner in which negotiations should progress.
The MUMN had therefore decided to call off industrial action, having already temporarily suspended the directives by two days.
Nurses were due to strike after the MUMN deemed government offers as part of a new sectoral agreement to be insufficient.
The directives would have seen nurses and midwives not wash patients, not join in ward rounds and in the distribution of food and refuse to help transfer patients - except in the case of those requiring intensive care.