Social worker wants to set up support group

A social worker is pushing for the setting up of a Relatives Support Group, made up of people who have elderly relatives at St Vincent de Paul who are suffering from the shortage of nursing staff.

Bernadette Briffa, who works for the Hospice Movement, said the support group would put pressure on those responsible to look into the staff shortage and determine what could be done to solve the inconveniences that exist at the home and that were likely to crop up.

Ms Briffa said that for the past year, elderly women at the home, who depended on nursing staff to get out of their beds, have been compelled to remain in them as often as three times a week.

Because they have no assistance, they are confined to their beds when they would rather be spending their time in other ways, Ms Briffa said.

The majority of the elderly residents at the home should be in armchairs, or wheelchairs in the corridors, at least watching the staff and visitors going about their daily business.

Ms Briffa has forwarded her complaints to the Customer Care office and has been informed that they would be looking into the matter. Reports are to be drawn up and presented to the superintendent at the residence .

She has also approached the ward managers, nursing officers and nurses about the problem and was informed that it revolved around the long-awaited staff support.

Luckily, it appeared that the problem did not exist in the men`s wards.

Ms Briffa said complaints by nursing officers to the administration have, to date, met with no concrete solutions.

She said the only alternative to setting up the support group was to "tolerate the situation and simply empathise with the nursing staff to the detriment of the elderly" and the encouragement of the degeneration of the quality of the service.

St Vincent de Paul has around 1,200 residents, who pay for their stay at the home from their monthly pensions.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has raised the issue of the acute shortage of supporting staff at St Vincent de Paul and the need to resolve it. Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi has taken a personal interest in the problem and will soon be issuing a call for applications for care workers at the home, the MUMN said recently.

Ms Briffa invited those whose relatives were experiencing the same problem to contact her on 9944 5226.