'Not enough cooks'

The General Workers' Union has ordered hospital auxiliaries and cleaning staff at Mount Carmel Hospital not to help out in the hospital kitchen, claiming the management is using the workers to make up for a shortage of cooks.

The union's public sector section said it had expressed concern that hospital auxiliaries and patients were being told to help out in preparing food.

The GWU claimed the hospital management was making these employees attend a food management course so that they would not be able to refuse to cook, threatening those who refuse with disciplinary action.

The union said it would ask the Health Department to investigate the issue if the situation was not remedied. It urged the hospital management to recruit cooks in vacant posts.