The news the Maltese and UK governments are in talks to formalise an agreement regarding doctors and their ability to gain experience through fellowship posts in the UK is good news.
The UK government had introduced a Bill which Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela had said would put the training and specialisation of Maltese graduates in jeopardy.
It was so concerning, in fact, that Maltese government officials wrote to UK officials about their concerns and how it could impact Malta.
The Bill would prioritise UK graduates, and some others, for training posts. As described on the UK House of Lords website, the Bill would, for foundation placements, prioritise UK and Ireland medical graduates and graduates from priority list countries. For offers for specialty training posts in 2026, it would prioritise UK and Ireland medical graduates, graduates from priority countries, those who completed foundation training or a relevant earlier stage of training in the UK, and those with certain immigration statuses. For offers and interviews for specialty training posts from 2027 onwards, it would prioritise UK and Ireland medical graduates, graduates from priority countries, those who completed foundation training or a relevant earlier stage of training in the UK, and those with significant NHS experience, to be defined in regulations. Malta is not listed as a priority list country.
Concerns about the impact the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill would have on Maltese doctors had even been raised in the House of Lords, during a debate. Baroness Gerada said that for nearly 200 years, since the first Maltese doctor received their licence to practise from the Royal College of Surgeons, British and Maltese medicine have grown side by side: “the same language, the same exams and, for many years, the same training programme.” She said that each year around 50 doctors complete their specialty training in the NHS, under a special arrangement under which the Maltese Government covers 70% of their salary, “with a contractual agreement that these doctors return to Malta. It is a so-called finishing school; they come here to do parts of the training that they cannot get in Malta, such as for sickle cell in haematology.”
Many Maltese doctors head to the UK to further their specialisation training. So this Bill would cause issues in the future in that regard.
Malta’s Health Minister had written to UK government officials about his concerns, and it is understood that Prime Minister Robert Abela also wrote to the UK Prime Minister.
Thankfully, the UK government responded to Malta’s Health Minister with a possible solution. The UK is offering to hold discussions leading to a potential agreement for Malta to have non-numbered fellowship posts, which Minister Jo Etienne Abela explains are for doctors who would have already achieved a certificate of completion of training, or are on their way to achieving it. He said that if agreement is found along the lines of what is stipulated by the UK minister in the letter, “we shouldn’t have any problems. Without that commitment from the UK government, yes we would have had problems”.
It is important for Maltese doctors to have the ability to further their training abroad in the UK, in order to keep as up to date as possible with new practices, and bring back medical knowledge to Malta. The government’s action on this issue, talking with their UK counterparts to try and find a solution due to their concerns about the impact it could have on healthcare in Malta, is important.
One hopes that the agreement can come to fruition, and one also hopes, as seems to be indicated, that the agreement would be enough to ensure that there will be no negative impacts from that Bill on Maltese medical training abroad.