Fifty healthcare graduates still jobless - UHM

"Put meaning into your life and that of others", read an Institute of Health Care notice published in local newspapers in June 2000.

The advert targeted students interested in a degree in communication therapy, medical lab science, physiotherapy and radiography and promised them they would fill vacant posts after completing a four-year degree.

Yet, almost five years since the advert's publication, 50 graduates who had followed the IHC's counsel are still jobless.

"These healthcare professionals feel that the government has deceived them," UHM health services section secretary John M. Briffa said at a press conference yesterday.

Unemployed health care professionals told The Times it went unquestioned that anyone taking up such a course would get a job with the Health Division.

Besides having heard time and again that there was "a great need for healthcare professionals in the health sector", students doing IHC courses got a stipend of Lm81 every four weeks instead of Lm64 like other students. The government had used this as a way of attracting more science students to courses where there had been a gap.

They felt, however, they had been unlucky enough to finish their course at a time when the government decided not to employ more people because of budget cuts. The graduates claimed that their only chance for employment was with the Health Division because the private sector never employed inexperienced health care professionals.

Mr Briffa said the UHM had held talks with Health Minister Louis Deguara and Health Director General Ray Busuttil on the issue over the past months. The government had said the Health Division was "evaluating the manning levels needed at St Luke's Hospital while keeping Mater Dei Hospital in mind".

In comments to The Times, Dr Busuttil had said health care professionals were automatically recruited by the government at a time when there was a shortage, adding that professions had eventually become saturated.

The UHM yesterday contradicted the health authorities' version, claiming there "was indeed a great need for healthcare professionals".

In the case of radiographers for example, the number of X-ray examinations had increased by 10,000 annually since 2003. Since that year, six radiographers had left and had not been replaced, while four to six others took temporary leave for parenting or studying.

The UHM said the Health Department also reduced the amount of overtime a radiographer may work, issuing a directive that not more than four employees may be out on leave at the same time due to understaffing.

Mr Briffa said a number of radiographers have applied for a licence to work abroad and many claim they are stressed as a result of the workload and demotivated.

On February 9, the government issued a call for applications for radiographers on a casual basis for a minimum three-month employment period. "Unlike radiographers who are employed with the government, the new recruits will be given a scale 12 pay and not a scale 10," Mr Briffa said, adding that the UHM is informed that the government will not employ more than three radiographers. He described the call for applications as a half-measure.

In the case of communication therapists, the UHM said the Health Department had a complement of about 45 employees in all. "That more communication therapists are needed in the health sector can be witnessed at the NRU ward of Sir Paul Boffa Hospital where a therapist visits patients only once a week," Mr Briffa said.

At least five physiotherapists left the Health Department last year and were not replaced. Most physiotherapists who finished their course last year are still hoping to be employed.

Mr Briffa said the government had said it would replace those who leave as from this year onwards.

Of the medical lab science professionals who graduated last year, one remains unemployed. A number of graduates found alternative employment and a handful decided to continue studying abroad.