Government health centre plans irks nurses' union

Officials of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses yesterday hit out at the government's decision to reduce community care services and accused Finance Minister John Dalli of failing to consult the union over the measures.

The way to provide a service at health centres was through cost effectiveness and not through cost cutting, MUMN president Rudolph Cini said at a press conference held in front of the Floriana health centre.

Mr Dalli said in his budget speech on Monday there was no logic in keeping all health centres open at night and on Sundays.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics who were currently deployed on those duties could be re-allocated to hospital duty where they were needed to ease the pressure of work on their colleagues and cut down on overtime costs.

Interviewed by The Times, Health Minister Louis Deguara said that if one really wanted to make maximum use of resources there was a need to rethink the services being offered at health centres. He also said unions did not accept changes unless they were included in a complete revision of the collective agreement.

"It is easy to shift the problem onto others. The problem is that we look at primary care with a different perspective, the same perspective being looked at by European countries," Mr Cini said when he referred to the minister's comments.

"We agree that the service at health centres should not be that of a 'mini-casualty centre' but there are other changes in primary care that the health service was afraid to implement. These developments would have rendered the primary care service more cost effective," Mr Cini added.

He said the workload of the hospital's emergency department would increase as a result of the government's decision.

Union secretary Colin Galea said the government had two options: either to work with the sectors in question or act on its own and face the consequences.

Mr Cini said the measures proposed by the government ran counter to the World Health Organisation's declaration that community care should be considered as a means to implement social justice and that it should reach all the sectors of the population.

Mr Cini said it resulted from replies given by the Health Division to a WHO questionnaire that the community care service in Malta was underdeveloped. Measures proposed in the budget would further erode this service instead of developing it.

"By reducing community care we will neither be maintaining quality nor long term cost effectiveness. The measures proposed are just a cheap short term measure to save money," Mr Cini said.

He said the MUMN was surprised that the government decided to introduce the measure concerning the health centres without holding any discussions with the union. This went against the spirit of social dialogue as expressed by the International Labour Organisation.

He warned that the MUMN would inform the WHO and the ILO if the government went ahead.