Health authorities accused of interfering with autonomy

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has expressed concern that hospitals were not being allowed to operate autonomously despite the fact that chief executive officers had been appointed.

The UHM yesterday said the Ministry of Health and the health department were interfering in decisions taken at hospitals.

UHM section secretary John Briffa said that if this continued it was pointless turning hospitals into agencies with the aim of being autonomous.

"It would be a waste of money to have highly paid chief executive officers and not allow them to do their jobs," he said.

Speaking during a media briefing, Mr Briffa said interference was also taking place with regard to small issues of the hospitals' ordinary administration. He quoted a recent case when the Mount Carmel Hospital management was about to allocate a particular nurse to fill a vacant post at the Psychiatric Unit at St Luke's Hospital, but had to allocate another nurse on instructions by the ministry or the department.

He said the nurse who filled the post did not have the experience or qualifications in psychiatry, despite the unit being one of the front line wards in psychiatry.

"According to information we have, even the administration at St Luke's was opposed to the appointment of the nurse," he said.

The section, he said, would request meetings with the ministry to discuss how autonomy works. He said the section had agreed that public hospitals should be managed autonomously in 1993.