The Minister of Health, Louis Deguara, stayed away from a nurses' seminar yesterday because of an incident at a similar event last year in which he objected to a "political" speech by the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses.
An e-mail by an official at Dr Deguara's ministry was read out at the full-day seminar held yesterday by the union for its activists. It said that although the minister recognised that there might be divergence of opinions between the union and the ministry it had been unacceptable for union president Rudolphe Cini to make a political speech.
For that reason, the e-mail added, Dr Deguara would not attend such meetings.
The discussion that had triggered the incident revolved around the payment of taxes. Mr Cini had said that a Maltese worker could pay as much as 63 per cent of his wage in taxes and Dr Deguara interjected that the issue was being politicised.
At yesterday's seminar, Mr Cini said the union was not going to accept anyone imposing an agenda on it. Various issues were addressed during the seminar. One of these was the Mater Dei Hospital. Mr Cini said it was a big mistake to open the new hospital before a strong primary care system was developed and added that any new practice should first be tried at St Luke's Hospital so that the Mater Dei Hospital would start working with a fine tuned system.
"We need a hospital with impeccable services," he stressed.
A similar opinion was voiced by Labour health spokesman Michael Farrugia who said it did not make sense to have a new hospital without a strong primary care system.
Dr Farrugia said the health sector could not continue operating with a structure of crisis management but issues needed to be tackled in advance. He said a change process should be ongoing.
A detailed presentation on Mater Dei Hospital was given by the acting president of the Foundation for Medical Services, Paul Camilleri. Mr Camilleri said Mater Dei will be a seven floor hospital with about 6,000 rooms. There are plans for 24 operating theatres, 52 lifts and 7,000 telephone points. There are also plans to build the Medical School as part of the university campus and there will be a bridge connecting it to the hospital.
Also addressing the seminar was the director of nursing services Jesmond Sharples, who stressed the importance of medical knowledge among nurses. Mr Sharples said a nurse needed to be able to give all the necessary information to a patient. He stressed the importance of communication between the patient and the nurse. "Our mission is to improve patients' life," he said.
Mr Sharples spoke at length about mental health problems and said that about 40,000 Maltese people suffered from such problems. However, he added there was lack of recognition by the general public. He said only a small percentage of nurses working at Mount Carmel Hospital were trained in psychiatry but there were currently 12 nurses doing a degree in mental health.