Doctors poised for industrial action

The Medical Association of Malta is to set up an action committee to draw up directives in connection with a dispute over the administration of intravenous medication.

Nurses stopped administering IV medication to patients over five weeks ago on the instructions of their union, and doctors are having to administer the medication themselves. The nurses are trying to put pressure on the authorities to solve the problems of staff shortage and overcrowding at the hospital.

MAM declared an industrial dispute over the situation last week and a motion authorising it to move on was approved at a general meeting on Thursday.

The doctors' assocation said in a statement yesterday that "amicable discussion" with the health authorities and other associations involved had so far not reached a satisfactory conclusion.

Its directives, it said, would be issued if the current state of affairs - where patients' safety was compromised - persisted. They would be aimed at putting pressure on the authorities to find a quick solution to the problems.

It said the root of the issue was overcrowding, something over which the MAM and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses agreed.

The "serious overcrowding problem", for which the hospital authorities were responsible, was putting a strain on the medical and paramedical nursing staff and was not conducive to optimum patient care, it said.

However, it disagreed with any association that tried to solve its problems by shifting its work onto doctors.

On its part, the MUMN insists that intravenous medication falls within the line of duty of doctors and not nurses.